1900-1950: Harlem renaissance: Natalie (1898) / Alice Dunbar-Nelson -- Closing door (1919) / Angelina Weld Grimke -- Blessed assurance (1963) / Langston Hughes -- from Infants of the spring (1932) / Wallace Thurman -- Smoke, lilies, and jade (1925) / Richard Bruce Nugent -- from One way to heaven (1932) / Countee Cullen -- 1950-1980: protest era: from Boy at the window (1951) / Owen Dodson -- from Another country (1962) / James Baldwin -- from Ruby (1976) / Rosa Guy -- from Zami: a new spelling of my name (1982) / Audre Lorde -- Aye, and Gomorrah (1967) / Samuel R. Delany -- from Suzie Q (1978) / Red Jordan Arobateau -- Symbols (1990) / Julie Blackwomon -- This is how it happened (2000) / Alice Walker -- Ecce homo (2000) / Michelle Cliff -- Women of summer (1977) / Cheryl Clarke -- 1980-2000: coming out black, like us: In the life (1987) / Becky Birtha -- Bird of paradise (1992) / Alexis DeVeaux -- from The Gilda stories (1991) / Jewelle Gomez -- from Vanishing rooms (1991) / Melvin Dixon -- Dance of the cranes (1997) / Donna Allegra -- from A hundred days from now (1994) / Steven Corbin -- from The color of trees (1992) / Canaan Parker -- from Coffee will make you black (1994) / April Sinclair -- from Captain swing (1993) / Larry Duplechan -- from Invisible life (1991) / E. Lynn Harris -- from Soul kiss (1997) / Shay Youngblood -- from The serpent's gift (1994) / Helen Elaine Lee -- Foundations of the earth (1992) / Randall Kenan -- from From the notebooks of melanin sun (1995) / Jacqueline Woodson -- from Sunday you learn how to box (2000) / Bil Wright -- from Traitor to the race (1995) / Darieck Scott -- Whose song? (2000) / Thomas Glave -- from B-Boy blues (1994) / James Earl Hardy -- from Walking through mirrors (1998) / Brian Keith Jackson -- from Po man's child (1999) / Marci Blackman.