“If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET. This is what has hindered the development of artists among us. Their one note has been the concern with their race. That is all very well, none of us can get away from it. I cannot at times. You will see it in my verse. The consciousness of this is too poignant at times. I cannot escape it. But what I mean is this: I shall not write of negro subjects for the purpose of propaganda. That is not what a poet is concerned with. Of course, when the emotion rising out of the fact that I am a negro is strong, I express it. But that is another matter.”           

-Countee Cullen Brooklyn Eagle, February 10, 1924

BIOGRAPHY
Countee Cullen, a poet and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, was born on May 30, 1903.  The place of his birth has been debated and questioned for sometime.  Some claim New York City and Baltimore, but the majority of critics settle with Louisville, Kentucky.  After his mother’s death in Louisville in 1940, Cullen lived with Amanda Porter in the Bronx in New York City.  While living with his grandmother, in 1916, he was enrolled into Public School Number 27 under the name Countee L. Porter.  Shortly after her death in 1917, Countee went to live with Reverend Frederick Asbury Cullen and his wife Carolyn.  Cullen was the pastor of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, and took Countee under his wing.  Although it was not officially recorded that the Cullens adopted Countee, he claimed them as his natural parents in 1918 and assumed the name Countee P. Cullen.  He later dropped his middle initial to become Countee Cullen.

Cullen was excelled academically at every school that he attended.  In 1918, he entered DeWitt Clinton High School in Manhattan, a prestigious and well known all boy school.  While at that school, he won his first citywide competition with his poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Life”, a nonracial poem that was inspired by Alan Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death”.  After graduating, Cullen proceeded to attend New York University, and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in 1925.  During his senior year, his first collection of poetry, Color, was published and he had already achieved national fame.  His poetry had already been published in many popular magazines during that time, and he had won many awards in regards to his work with his poetry.  After receiving his bachelor’s degree from New York University, Cullen went on to earn his Master’s Degree in English and French from Harvard University in 1926, and later won the Crisis magazine award in poetry.  From 1926-1928, Cullen was assistant editor to Charles S. Johnson of Opportunity, where he also wrote a feature column, “The Dark Tower”.  Cullen had a year full of trials and triumphs in 1928.  He received a Geggenheim Fellowship to study in Paris, another volume of his poetry was published, and after a long courtship, he married Nina Du Bois, the daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois.  The wedding was the social event of the decade in Harlem, but later ended in divorce after Cullen confessed his attraction to men.  In 1934, after many offers for teaching at many prestigious schools, Cullen became a teacher at Frederick Douglass Junior High School, where he taught and inspired James Baldwin.  Cullen re-married in 1940 to Ida Mae Roberson and seemed to enjoy a happily married life.  Six short years later, on January 9^th, Cullen died from high blood pressure and uremic poisoning.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW
In the 43 short years of Cullen’s life, much was accomplished and achieved that is still admired greatly today.  He was considered to be a black man with great academic training who could write “white” literature.  Between high school and graduating from Harvard, Cullen was the most popular black poet and literary figure in America.  He won more major literary prizes than any other black write of the 1920’s.  His collection of poetry Color received universal crucial acclaim.  He was praised for portraying African Americans with a personal touch.  Although Cullen wrote during the Harlem Renaissance, he was greatly criticized for differing so greatly from the other writers of his time.  Because he based his work on Romantic poets, his approach to literature was much different from his colleagues, such as Langston Hughes.  Although his novel received little attention from critics, his reputation is mainly based on his style of poetry.  His lack of originality came to be viewed as a major deficiency.  Although he had hard critics it had no affect on his popularity.  Cullen is still today considered to be the most celebrated poet of the Harlem Renaissance, even though he is not the most well known poet.  His testament for the ability of blacks and his literature concerning racism landed him a very significant spot in the history of African American Literature.