No More Worlds to Conquer: The Black Poet in Washington, D.C.

Poet Gilmore (We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters) delivers a comprehensive history of the Black poetry scene in Washington, D.C., which he says “remains strong and visible and continues to produce outstanding writers of note.” He begins with the arrival of Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1896, calling him “the most important Black poet of his generation.” Dunbar’s magnetic poetry readings and stature as a professional writer brought a burst of literary activity to D.C. The momentum continued into the 1920s, attracting Black writers like Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Jean Toomer, and William Waring Cuney. Gilmore explores how segregation meant Black poetry developed “in its own space, in its own communities,” but over time pushed into the city’s mainstream institutions, with poets Robert Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks serving as poetry consultants to the Library of Congress in the 1970s and ’80s (the post today known as the poet laureate of the U.S.). Elsewhere, he chronicles how spoken word and hip-hop energized the poetry community in the 1990s and highlights notable performance spaces such as 8Rock and Busboys and Poets. Rich with D.C. cultural history, this is a well-researched testament to a place that has helped shape American literature. (Feb.)