AALBC Search
Kalamu ya Salaam
Kalamu ya Salaam 0000000067470753 Kalamu ya Salaam is the founder of NOMMO Literary Society and Runagate Press, leader of the WordBand, and a celebrated poet and educator. Born on March 24, 1947, he ...
Kysha N. Brown and Kalamu ya Salaam
Kysha N. Brown and Kalamu ya Salaam MULTIPLE Kysha N. Brown and Kalamu ya Salaam are influential authors. Brown excels in creating engaging narratives, while Salaam is renowned for his deep, thought-...
Kalamu ya Salaam and Kwame Alexander
Kalamu ya Salaam and Kwame Alexander MULTIPLE Kalamu ya Salaam and Kwame Alexander are renowned authors known for their impactful and compelling literary works. Kalamu ya Salaam, Kwame Alexander
Tom Dent and Edited by Kalamu ya Salaam
Tom Dent and Edited by Kalamu ya Salaam MULTIPLE Tom Dent and Kalamu ya Salaam are influential authors known for their significant contributions to literature and culture, particularly within the Afr...
Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam MULTIPLE Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam are celebrated authors known for their impactful works. Zoboi's books highlight diverse cultures, while Salaam's writings focus on socia...
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Alice Dunbar-Nelson 0000000081179540 Check out Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) was an acclaimed American journalist, political act...
Yusef A. Salaam
Yusef A. Salaam NONE Yusef A. Salaam, a Harlem-born writer, contributes regularly to the New York Beacon and is a member of the National Writers Union. Known for his appearances on the Oprah Winfrey ...
Shannon Holmes, Wahida Clark, Victor L. Martin, Sa'id Salaam, Reds Johnson, Hood Chronicles, Joe Awsum, and Vance Phillips
Shannon Holmes, Wahida Clark, Victor L. Martin, Sa'id Salaam, Reds Johnson, Hood Chronicles, Joe Awsum, and Vance Phillips MULTIPLE "Shannon Holmes, Wahida Clark, Victor L. Martin, Sa'id Salaam, Reds...
Yusef Salaam
Yusef Salaam NONE Dr. Yusef Abdus Salaam, part of the Exonerated Five, was wrongly convicted in the Central Park jogger case at 15. After years in prison, his sentence was overturned in 2002. His sto...
Salaam Green
Salaam Green NONE Birmingham’s first Poet Laureate Salaam Green is a celebrated storyteller, healing arts practitioner, and the 2024–2026 Birmingham Poet Laureate. She is a native of Gree...
Kiini Ibura Salaam
Kiini Ibura Salaam NONE Kiini Ibura Salaam is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. The middle child of five, she grew up in a hardscrabble neighborhood with oak and fig trees...
Herman J. Fountain Jr.
Herman J. Fountain Jr. NONE Rev. Dr. Herman J. Fountain Jr. is a retired psychotherapist with 20 years of experience in a Florida state prison and a former deputy warden in Kentucky. He spent 16 year...
Stephon Alexander
Stephon Alexander NONE Stephon Alexander, a physics professor at Brown University and 2020 president of the National Society of Black Physicists, specializes in string cosmology. He co-invented a mod...
Brent K. Ashabranner
Brent K. Ashabranner 0000000110762541 Brent K. Ashabranner, born 1921, has vast international experience, working with U.S. foreign assistance programs and the Ford Foundation. He served as director ...
Michael Warr
Michael Warr 0000000046890548 Michael Warr, born in 1955, is an award-winning author from Baton Rouge, LA, notable for his work 'Tracing Poetic Memory'. He serves as the deputy director of the Museum...
Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo
Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo MULTIPLE Kinshasha Holman Conwill serves as the deputy director of NMAAHC and ex-director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Paul Gardullo is a historian, cura...
Iris Mwanza
Iris Mwanza NONE Iris Mwanza is a Zambian American writer and Deputy Director of Gender Equality at the Gates Foundation. A former corporate lawyer in Zambia and the US, she holds law degrees from Co...
Mona Sutphen
Mona Sutphen 000000004776341X Mona K. Sutphen, a partner at Macro Advisory Partners LLP, is a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the Obama administration and an ex-American diplom...
Karine Jean-Pierre
Karine Jean-Pierre 0000000500800507 Karine Jean-Pierre is the former White House Press Secretary and Senior Advisor to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Born in Martinique and raised in New York by Hait...
Ibi Zoboi
Ibi Zoboi NONE Haitian-born, New York-raised author Ibi Zoboi is an MFA holder from Vermont College of Fine Arts, a New York Times bestselling author, and a National Book Award finalist. She's known ...
Stephanie Stokes Oliver
Stephanie Stokes Oliver NONE Stephanie Stokes Oliver is an accomplished publishing professional, heading SSO Media, serving as a literary scout for Atria Book Group and as author curator for Anguilla...
David Simon
David Simon 0000000122782515 David Simon, award-winning author of novels, plays, and poetry, is also known for his bestselling educational series and workbooks for children. His contributions in offe...
Barbara A. Robinson
Barbara A. Robinson NONE Barbara A. Robinson is a multi-faceted individual; an author, businesswoman, and educator. She served the 40th legislative district in the Maryland Senate for 13 years and is...
Samuel P. Golden
Samuel P. Golden 0000000530897514 Samuel P. Golden’s 2026 Book Tour Samuel P. Golden is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal in Houston and currently serves as a Senior Advisor. He is the fou...
Felicia Pearson
Felicia Pearson 0000000036169140 Felicia “Snoop“ Pearson, known for her chilling role in HBO's The Wire, has overcome significant life challenges. Born in difficult circumstances in East Baltimor...
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson 0000000084378609 Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is an award-winning children's author and librarian. She penned “Bad News for Outlaws,” which won the 2010 Coretta Scott King Award, and...
Kenya Hunt
Kenya Hunt NONE Kenya Hunt, Fashion Director at Grazia UK, has a vast career in media, working with top women's titles in the US and UK. An accomplished writer, her work is featured in various public...
Johnnie Cochran
Johnnie Cochran 0000000035524710 Johnnie L Cochran, Jr. was a renowned American trial lawyer, celebrated for his victories against legal system misconduct and his representation of high-profile clien...
Lynnette Khalfani-Cox
Lynnette Khalfani-Cox NONE Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach, is a renowned personal finance expert, television personality, and author of 12 books, including NY Times bestseller 'Zero Debt'. Fo...
Charles B. Fancher
Charles B. Fancher NONE Charles B. Fancher is the author of Red Clay, the popular historical novel from Blackstone Publishing. The novel, which covers the final months of the Civil War, Reconstructi...
Steve Cannon
Steve Cannon 0000000363821597 Steve Cannon (1935-2019) was a key figure in the Black Arts Movement and a prominent Black writer from New Orleans. He moved to NYC in 1962, where he engaged in literary...
Jesse McCarthy
Jesse McCarthy NONE Jesse McCarthy is an assistant professor of English and of African and African American studies at Harvard University. His critically acclaimed essay collection Who Will Pay Repar...
Lindsey Nyx Walker
Lindsey Nyx Walker Lindsey Nyx Walker is the senior producer and head writer at StarTalk, a popular science podcast and four-time Emmy-nominated television show on the National Geographic Channel. ...
Manzel Bowman
Manzel Bowman NONE Manzel Bowman is a distinguished Afrofuturist artist known for his digital illustrations that merge technology with spiritual and natural motifs. His art explores identity, humanit...
Tanya Wright
Tanya Wright 0000000395292597 Tanya Wright, a Bronx native, is an acclaimed actor known for roles in HBO's True Blood and Netflix's Orange Is the New Black. A Vassar graduate and former New York Time...
Michelle D. Commander
Michelle D. Commander 0000000497642121 Dr. Michelle D. Commander is Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is an interdisciplin...
Dimitry Elias Leger
Dimitry Elias Leger NONE Dimitry Elias Léger, born in Haiti, is a former editor and writer for The Source, Fortune, and MTV News, with work in The New York Times and The Washington Post. A UN adviso...
Milton Allimadi
Milton Allimadi NONE Milton Allimadi, co-founder and editor of The Black Star News, is an experienced journalist who previously worked for The City Sun and The New York Times. A Columbia Journalism S...
Dana Canedy, Darcy Eveleigh, Damien Cave, and Rachel L. Swarns
Dana Canedy, Darcy Eveleigh, Damien Cave, and Rachel L. Swarns MULTIPLE Darcy Eveleigh, a photo editor at The New York Times, is the creator of “The Lively Morgue” blog. Dana Canedy, former senior ed...
Valerie Jarrett
Valerie Jarrett NONE Valerie Jarrett, a long-term senior adviser to President Obama, led several White House initiatives and held key roles in Chicago's government and business sectors. She's recogni...
Dante D. King
Dante D. King NONE Dante King is a San Francisco native, historian, and award-winning author of Diagnosing Whiteness & Anti-Blackness: White Psychopathology, Collective Psychosis, and Trauma in ...
Amy DuBois Barnett
Amy DuBois Barnett 0000000040720716 Amy DuBois Barnett is an award-winning media executive and author who earned national acclaim as editor in chief of Honey, Ebony, and Teen People—where she made h...
Tyehimba Jess
Tyehimba Jess 0000000044353175 Congrats to Tyehimba Jess: Winner 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Tyehimba Jess, a Detroit native, is an award-winning poet and professor. His first book, Leadbelly, won ...
Joseph S. Spence
Joseph S. Spence NONE Dr. Joseph S. Spence Sr. is a globally recognized author, poet, educator, and military veteran. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles, ten poetry books, and co-founded...
Taylor Byas
Taylor Byas NONE Dr. Taylor Byas, Ph.D. is a Black poet and essayist. Originally from Chicago, she moved to Alabama for six years, where she received both her Bachelor’s degree in English and her Ma...
Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa 000000011440862X Yusef Komunyakaa the first African American male to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry Yusef Komunyakaa, born on April 29, 1947, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet recog...
Pamela Samuels Young
Pamela Samuels Young NONE Pamela Samuels Young is an award-winning author, attorney, and motivational speaker from Compton, California. Notably, she served as Toyota's Managing Counsel for 15 years a...
Ted Joans
Ted Joans 0000000081560413 “Jazz is my religion.” Theodore “Ted” Joans was an acclaimed jazz poet, surrealist, trumpeter, and painter, known for his avant-garde work and criticism of compe...
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon 0000000033953968 Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is a renowned American poet and scholar, celebrated for her exploration of race, identity, and human complexities in her work. Honor...
Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Victoria Adukwei Bulley 0000000474165676 Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a celebrated poet, writer, and artist, recognized for her exceptional poetry with an Eric Gregory Award. She's an alumna of the Bar...
Jacqueline Leigh
Jacqueline Leigh NONE Jacqueline Leigh is a children's book author and poet with a focus on Sierra Leone. Her notable works include a historical novel, The Heritage Keeper, and a nonfiction account o...
Keisha-Gaye Anderson
Keisha-Gaye Anderson NONE Keisha-Gaye Anderson is a Jamaican-born poet, creative writer, visual artist, and media professional, whose multi-platform storytelling has examined subjects like art, cult...
Barbara Fant
Barbara Fant 0000000114483152 Barbara Fant is an acclaimed poet who has been writing and performing for over fifteen years. She has competed in nine National Poetry Slam competitions and placed 8th ...
Toi Derricotte
Toi Derricotte 0000000083980729 “My skin causes certain problems continuously, problems that open the issue of racism over and over like a wound.” Toi Derricotte is an award-winning poet a...
Aileen Muhammad
Aileen Muhammad NONE Aileen Muhammad, born in 1950, is a notable poet and author from Philadelphia. Her poetry appeared in Journal of Black Poetry and Muhammad Speaks in the 1960s. She graduated from...
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Rachel Eliza Griffiths 0000000527846142 Rachel Eliza Griffiths, a poet, photographer, and creative writing teacher, is renowned for her literary portraits, fine art photography, and lyric videos. She...
Reginald Harris
Reginald Harris 0000000022558452 Reginald Harris, a noted poet and IT Director at Poets House, NYC, is a winner of the 2012 Cave Canem/Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize. He's received multip...
Chance Arradondo
Chance Arradondo NONE Chance Arradondo is a versatile writer, born in 1989 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He writes novels, poetry, short stories, and lyrics, inspired by his life experiences and love fo...
Joseph S. Spence, Sheila M. Parrish-Spence, and Jonathan Clarence Parrish-Spence
Joseph S. Spence, Sheila M. Parrish-Spence, and Jonathan Clarence Parrish-Spence MULTIPLE The Spence family, consisting of Joseph, Sheila, and Jonathan, use poetry and various other forms of artistic...
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley 0000000046027939 Wesley Receives the 2023 Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, a Penn State Altoona professor of English, creative writing and Afri...
April Gibson
April Gibson NONE April Gibson is a poet, writer, and professor from the South Side of Chicago. She is a winner of The Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and a Loft L...
Patricia Spears Jones
Patricia Spears Jones 0000000031494569 Patricia Spears Jones, born in Arkansas, is the 2024 New York State Poet Laureate, a Jackson Poetry Prize laureate, and a cultural activist. An esteemed poet, p...
Frank B. Wilderson III
Frank B. Wilderson III 0000000040137977 Frank B. Wilderson III is a prominent writer, filmmaker, and academic specializing in critical race theory and Afropessimism. As a professor at the University ...
Vincent Woodard
Vincent Woodard 000000043029090X Vincent Woodard (1971–2008) was an influential author and academic known for his groundbreaking work The Delectable Negro, which explores themes of cannibalism...
Ekua Holmes
Ekua Holmes 0000000451226536 Ekua Holmes is a painter and collage artist who uses various materials to create vibrant, abstract works that convey unity and evoke universal memories. Her ongoing serie...
J. Michael Dash
J. Michael Dash 0000000081152794 Professor Jean Michael Dash (1948-2019) was a renowned scholar of Francophone Caribbean literature. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, and educated at the University of the...
Randy Weston
Randy Weston 0000000081037964 Randy Weston, born April 6, 1926, was a renowned jazz musician whose career spanned over six decades. Known for his unique fusion of African rhythms and jazz improvisati...
Wesley Muhammad
Wesley Muhammad NONE Dr. Wesley Muhammad is an American scholar and author with a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies. Known for his in-depth research on the Nation of Islam's history and theology, his work exp...
Winthrop D. Jordan
Winthrop D. Jordan 0000000108632318 Winthrop Donaldson Jordan was a distinguished historian recognized for exploring slavery, race, and American history. His pioneering research into the roots and pe...
Jerome Gay Jr.
Jerome Gay Jr. NONE Jerome Gay Jr., founding pastor of Vision Church, Raleigh, is dedicated to promoting gospel-centered churches in urban areas. He authored “The Whitewashing of Christianity” and “R...
Lauren Ling Brown
Lauren Ling Brown NONE Lauren Ling Brown is an author and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Brown identifies as multiracial, with African American and Asian heritage. She has spoken about how ...
Hilton Als
Hilton Als 0000000106528066 Congrats to Hilton Als: Winner 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism Hilton Als, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University, is an award-winning author and critic...
Shana Lynch
Shana Lynch NONE Shana Lynch, a Los Angeles-based writer, cultivates and inspires thoughts through her poetry. Over the past six years, she has developed her talent for writing, supported by her love...
Essex Hemphill
Essex Hemphill 0000000029631982 Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) was a notable poet and activist, significant in the 1980s Washington D.C. art scene. Raised in poverty, he sought solace in poetry, explorin...
June Jordan
June Jordan 0000000114793687 June Millicent Jordan (1936-2002) was a renowned poet, activist, teacher, and essayist, known for her influential voice in liberation. A professor at UC Berkeley, she dir...
Sharrif Simmons
Sharrif Simmons NONE Sharrif Simmons, a poet, musician, writer, and arts educator, has a performance career extending over three decades. Inspired by veteran poet Sonia Sanchez and influenced by vari...
Carl Patterson
Carl Patterson NONE Carl Patterson started writing at 45, inspired by his late wife's positive outlook on life. Initially a poet, he transitioned into novel-writing upon her suggestion. His works, in...
Safiya Sinclair
Safiya Sinclair 0000000500999106 Safiya Sinclair is a Jamaica-born author known for her award-winning poetry book, Cannibal. She holds numerous accolades including the Whiting Writers’ Award, Pushcar...
Loretta Collins Klobah
Loretta Collins Klobah NONE Loretta Collins Klobah is a Caribbean Literature and creative writing professor at the University of Puerto Rico. She's lived in various Caribbean-related locations and ho...
Danez Smith
Danez Smith 0000000529080232 Danez Smith is an award-winning poet from St. Paul, Minnesota. Known for his works such as [insert] boy, his poetry explores themes of race, class, sexuality, faith, and ...
Latorial Faison
Latorial Faison NONE Faison is the Judge for Nubianpoets.com 2018 Nation Poetry Month Poetry Contest Latorial Faison is an American poet and author, known for her profound poetry reflecting her Africa...
Danielle Legros Georges
Danielle Legros Georges NONE Danielle Legros Georges, a professor at Lesley University, is a renowned writer and poet with interests in arts, education, American and African-American poetry, Caribbea...
John Murillo
John Murillo NONE John Murillo is a renowned poet and professor known for his works “Up Jump the Boogie” and “Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry.” He's won numerous awards including two Larry Neal Writers ...
Olatunde Osinaike
Olatunde Osinaike NONE Olatunde Osinaike is a Nigerian American poet and software developer from Chicago. He won the 2019 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize and is the author of Tender Headed, a 2022 Natio...
Richard Ellmann and Robert O’Clair
Richard Ellmann and Robert O’Clair MULTIPLE Richard Ellmann, an influential literary critic and biographer, and Robert O’Clair, a scholar specializing in modern poetry, were key contributors to the s...
Danusha Laméris
Danusha Laméris NONE Danusha Lameris, a poet and essayist, was raised in Northern California, born to a Dutch father and Barbadian mother. Danusha Laméris, a poet and essayist, was raised in Nor...
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup 0000000374327420 Born free, Solomon Northup was kidnapped into slavery in 1841, enduring this for 12 years in Louisiana. Regaining his freedom in 1853, he penned the memoir “Twelve Ye...
Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron 0000000120176415 One of the most influential progenitors of rap music, Gil Scott-Heron’s aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry inspired a legion of intelligent rappers while his en...
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez NONE Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is a publishing professional and poetry enthusiast with a diverse background, including service in the US Army and political campaigns. A firm belie...
Tai Allen
Tai Allen NONE Tai Allen, a renowned Brooklyn-based creative director, poet, and musician, has excelled in multiple disciplines. His poetry and music have gained recognition from notable publications...
Patricia Smith
Patricia Smith 0000000110775334 Patricia Smith, celebrated poet and professor, is known for her direct and adventuresome style. She’s authored six books, including award finalists 'Blood Dazzler' and...
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor 0000000038283932 Trinidad-born, Queens-bred Cheryl Boyce Taylor is a celebrated poet and visual artist. She's authored several poetry collections, received the Partners in Writing...
Geffrey Davis
Geffrey Davis NONE Geffrey Davis, an award-winning author and poet, is renowned for his book 'Revising the Storm'. He's a recipient of numerous accolades including the Anne Halley Poetry Prize. His w...
Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine 0000000108694914 Claudia Rankine is a celebrated author and Yale professor, known for her poetry collections, plays, and video collaborations. She won multiple awards for her groundbr...
Major Jackson
Major Jackson 000000011499709X Major Jackson, an award-winning American poet and professor, is known for his poetry collections and contributions to the Harvard Review. He's a recipient of the Whitin...
Chaun Webster
Chaun Webster NONE Chaun Webster, a poet, publisher, and graphic designer, is influenced by the Black Arts Movement, Jazz, and Graffiti. He founded Free Poet’s Press in 2009 to encourage art producti...
Kamau Brathwaite
Kamau Brathwaite 0000000109373020 Edward Kamau Brathwaite, born in Barbados (1930-2020), was a key voice in Caribbean literature, a professor at NYU, and co-founder of the Caribbean Artists Movement....
Indigo Moor
Indigo Moor NONE Indigo Moor, Sacramento's Poet Laureate, is a multi-talented writer with works ranging from poetry to plays. His award-winning books include Tap-Root and Through the Stonecutter’s Wi...
K. Caprice Arradondo
K. Caprice Arradondo NONE K. Caprice Arradondo, born in 1988, is a Minnesota-based poet, short story writer, lyricist, father, and licensed tattoo artist. His works, including the co-authored “Writer...