{"id":152962,"date":"2026-02-27T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=152962"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:49:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:49:53","slug":"happy-birthday-poet-angelina-weld-grimke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=152962","title":{"rendered":"“I recognize no rights but human rights.” — Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe ground upon which you stand is holy ground: never never surrender it.\u201d — Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9<\/big><\/p>\n

Poet\/playwright Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9, born on this day in 1880, had a powerful familial legacy. Her paternal grandparents were a white slave owner and a mixed-race slave, who lived together and had three sons. Her father was the second Black person to graduate from Harvard. Her parents split up soon after she was born, and at first Angelina lived with her mother (who was white). When Angelina was sent back to live with her father, the mother basically broke contact with her daughter. The mother then committed suicide. <\/p>\n

More power in the family tree: her grandfather’s sisters – Sarah and Angelina<\/a> – were famous abolitionists, even more famous because they came from a slaveholding family in the South, and broke ranks with the family, with their culture, with everything. These women were Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9’s great-aunts. One of her aunts was Charlotte Forten Grimk\u00e9<\/a>, a Black anti-slavery activist as well as a poet (see Angelina’s poem about her aunt below). <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>
\nCharlotte Forten Grimk\u00e9<\/i><\/p>\n

Grimk\u00e9 stayed with an aunt and uncle in Washington D.C. while attending school. She got a degree in physical education from the Boston School of Gymnastics, and then worked as an English teacher at a couple of different schools. She took summer classes at Harvard. She eventually lived in New York. Her poems and essays were published in Crisis<\/em>, the magazine for the NAACP, looping her in with the Harlem Renaissance.<\/p>\n

In 1915, D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation<\/em> was released. It became a blockbuster hit, the first. It was screened at the White House. To this day, it is praised for its artistic innovations (fair enough), while also being criticized for how FUCKING RACIST it is (also fair). I mean … <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThere is a myth – perpetuated by people who don’t know anything about history – that everybody “back then” was just a-okay FINE with Birth of a Nation<\/i>. The OPPOSITE is true. The film was protested ferociously at the time. The film caused an uproar. People protested the theatres. Writers wrote about it. The NAACP organized protests. Don’t ERASE these courageous pissed-off people just because you can’t be bothered to actually read a book.<\/p>\n

In order to consolidate the protests against Birth of a Nation<\/i>, Crisis<\/em> called for works by black writers to counter-act Birth of a Nation<\/em>‘s racist narrative. Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9 heeded that call and wrote Rachel<\/i>, a play about a black family in the North, during the Great Migration. Rachel<\/i> is about lynching and racial discrimination, and it’s also about motherhood (the play’s original title was Blessed are the Barren<\/em>, which gives you some sense of Grimk\u00e9’s ambivalence on the topic). How can you be a mother and protect your children in a world where there is such a thing as lynching? This is the central theme of the play.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nRachel<\/i> was first produced in D.C. and then it moved to New York. It is the first play by an Black woman to be produced in this country in professional venues. It got very good responses initially, and it rode the waves of publicity from Birth of a Nation<\/i>. After that, it lapsed into obscurity, although it has recently been re-discovered, as a fairly important early work addressing the realities of African-American life in the early years of the 20th century. There have also been a number of recent productions of it. <\/p>\n

In more recent years, her lesbianism – which she wrote about in her journal and in letters – has gotten more attention. She knew who she was. But what were her relationships? How did she navigate this? One can only speculate. It’s hard to know what exactly was going on – there just isn’t a lot of evidence. Her moment in the sun was so brief. She died in 1958. <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nHere are a couple of her poems: <\/p>\n

El Beso<\/strong><\/big> <\/p>\n

Twilight\u2014-and you
\nQuiet\u2014-the stars;
\nSnare of the shine of your teeth,
\nYour provocative laughter,
\nThe gloom of your hair;
\nLure of you, eye and lip;
\nYearning, yearning,
\nLanguor, surrender;
\nYour mouth,
\nAnd madness, madness,
\nTremulous, breathless, flaming,
\nThe space of a sigh;
\nThen awakening\u2014remembrance,
\nPain, regret\u2014-your sobbing;
\nAnd again, quiet\u2014-the stars,
\nTwilight\u2014-and you. <\/p>\n

To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimk\u00e9 <\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n

Still are there wonders of the dark and day:
\n The muted shrilling of shy things at night,
\n So small beneath the stars and moon;
\n The peace, dream-frail, but perfect while the light
\n Lies softly on the leaves at noon.
\n These are, and these will be
\n Until eternity;
\nBut she who loved them well has gone away.<\/p>\n

Each dawn, while yet the east is veil\u00e9d grey,
\n The birds about her window wake and sing;
\n And far away, each day, some lark
\n I know is singing where the grasses swing;
\n Some robin calls and calls at dark.
\n These are, and these will be
\n Until eternity;
\nBut she who loved them well has gone away.<\/p>\n

The wild flowers that she loved down green ways stray;
\n Her roses lift their wistful buds at dawn,
\n But not for eyes that loved them best;
\n Only her little pansies are all gone,
\n Some lying softly on her breast.
\n And flowers will bud and be
\n Until eternity;
\nBut she who loved them well has gone away.<\/p>\n

Where has she gone? And who is there to say?
\n But this we know: her gentle spirit moves
\n And is where beauty never wanes,
\n Perchance by other streams, mid other groves;
\n And to us there, ah! she remains
\n A lovely memory
\n Until eternity;
\nShe came, she loved, and then she went away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe ground upon which you stand is holy ground: never never surrender it.\u201d — Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9 Poet\/playwright Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9, born on this day in 1880, had a powerful familial legacy. Her paternal grandparents were a white slave owner … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,39,16,9],"tags":[2595,160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152962"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202941,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152962\/revisions\/202941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}