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The Umbra Poets Workshop was a group of young African-American writers who met on New York City's Lower East Side from 1962 to 1965 to conduct readings and discuss writing and politics. The Umbra Poets Workshop collection consists of oral history interviews with fourteen of the poets along with letters relating to the formation of Umbra and Calvin Hernton's activities.
The Umbra Poets Workshop was a group of young African-American writers who met on New York City's Lower East Side from 1962 to 1965 to conduct readings and discuss writing and politics. Early members of the group included Thomas C. Dent, Calvin Hernton, Ishmael Reed, David Henderson, Joe Johnson, and Askia M. Toure (then Rolland Snellings). They founded Umbra, a literary magazine, in 1963. The workshops held in the City's Lower East Side, where many of them lived, provided a creative space to attempt new literary styles, and to communicate leftist political ideology through a Black aesthetic. The group, known for the intensity of its readings of "street poetry" and influenced by black nationalist ideas and the African oral tradition, was among the forerunners of the Black Arts movement.
The Umbra Poets Workshop collection consists of oral history interviews with fourteen of the poets, conducted by Michel Oren, with one exception, Amiri Baraka, who was interviewed by fellow Umbra member, Lorenzo Thomas. In addition, there are along with letters relating to the formation of Umbra and Calvin Hernton's activities. Lorenzo Thomas' manuscript, "Annotated Bibliography of the Umbra Workshop 1962-1982," is included.
Gift of Michel Oren in 1986 and 2007.
Accessioned by Mary Yearwood and Theresa Walker-Ray in 1986 and 2007.
Transcripts and interviews with Ishmael Reed and David Henderson are closed.