Rheagan Humphrey - The Changing Outlook on Black Women by Black Women lyrics

This timeline shows African American Literature through the eyes of prominent African American female writers of the time. Each of the excerpts touches on different views of the African American female as time went on. Where some excerpts present positive, even proud, images, others are not so sweet. Beginning with Gwendolyn Brooks and ending with Lucille Clifton, the excerpts take us through the era of Realism, past the Black Arts Era, and into the Contemporary Period. 1945 From "a song in the front yard" by Gwendolyn Brooks But I say it's fine. Honest, I do. And I'd like to be a bad woman too, And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace And strut down the streets with paint on my face 1969 From "homecoming" by Sonia Sanchez now woman/ i have returned leaving behind me/ all those hide and seek faces peeling/ with freudian dreams. 1970 From “Vive Noir!” by Mari Evans i'm/ gonna spread out/ over America/ intrude my proud blackness/ all over the place From “Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)” by Nikki Giovanni I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal I cannot be comprehended Except by my permission 1973 From “Outcast” by Alice Walker Be nobody's darling; Be an outcast. Qualified to live Among your dead. 1978 From “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise From “Poem for South African Women” by June Jordan we are the ones we have been waiting for 1980 From “what the mirror said” by Lucille Clifton listen, you a wonder. you a city of a woman.