Mari Evans
Another important and talented Black female poet of the 20th century. She was one of the most interesting 20th century poets I found--mainly because I couldn’t find much about her upon searching. Mainly because, like Gayl Jones, she tackled topics that Black people (at the time) did not want to tackle or read about. I could tell by her work that she was more of a Black Panther/Malcolm X follower than a Martin Luther King Junior follower.
i'm
gonna put black angels in all the books and a black Christchild in Mary's arms i'm gonna make black bunnies black fairies black santas black nursery rhymes and black ice cream ("Vive Noir" 72-3).
This poem in particular was compelling as it really shows that Mari was really for the reformation of Black specifically in America where Christianity was forced upon her ancestors and popularized.
Evans felt that Black art and the Black Art Movement was key to awakening black consciousness which would help people ‘become’ Black. Her work wasn’t like many other Black literaturists during this time. She states her work speaks to Black people not for Black people. Although all of this might sound confusing because it seems that a lot of Black poets’ focus was also Evans focus, but the thing that stuck out more was the fact that she was helping Black people become more Black--she felt as if Black people, although “free,” were still chained to this white American mindset that was stopping them from achieving the highest rank of Black consciousness, from which she has reached. This of course adds onto the abuse and violence she writes about in her poetry (Matthews).
