July Founder’s Note: We Contain Multitudes + Spoken Black Girl Magazine Issue 7
Hello everyone! Happy July! It’s Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Month as well as Disability Pride Month. As I was considering what to share with you all this month, I started researching the birthdays of Black women writers born in July, and came upon the life story of Gwendolyn Bennett. It struck me that I had never heard of her before. There are so many Black women writers whose legacies have been forgotten. Gwendolyn’s life was interesting and quite remarkable.
Gwendolyn Bennett was born on July 8th 1902, and was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. She was the first Black woman to graduate from the Pratt Institute and was appointed to the faculty at Howard University as an Instructor of Fine Arts. Bennett was also an editor, working with writers like Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman, and getting her work published in “The Crisis”, “Fire!!”, and “Opportunity,” which are major historic Black literary magazines. At “The Opportunity”, a publication sponsored by the National Urban League, she published a monthly column on the theme of racial pride called "The Ebony Flute."
Her life got me thinking about the role I can play during this time in history as a writer and publisher. One fact that jumped out to me was that she never published a book of her own work, although her work was included in The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance ( 1925), edited by Alain Locke, as well as Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets (1927), edited by Countee Cullen. The two bodies of work that made her work more publicly known in recent years were Sandra Y. Govan’s dissertation, “Gwendolyn Bennett: Portrait of an Artist Lost” (ProQuest Dissertation Publishing, 1980), and Belinda Wheeler and Louis J. Parascandola’s Heroine of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Gwendolyn Bennett’s Selected Writings (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018). Bennett died in 1981 at the age of 79, never having held a book of her own work.
Of the writers I know today, I think many of us dread the thought of never having a book of our own published. Books have become a status symbol in the writing community, but you don’t need to have a published book to be a writer. I want to highlight this because Bennett’s life shows that the writer’s journey can be more multifaceted than striving for a book deal. She lived a life of service, teaching writing and the arts for as long as she could before retiring from public life to open an antique shop.
It was inspiring to read about a writer who was clearly energized by the sense of community and the united movement towards liberation through the arts that was present during the Harlem Renaissance. She used her voice, vision, and talent to uplift others rather than seeking celebrity and fame for her own sake. As someone who is building and sustaining a community of Black women writers, I sometimes ask myself if it’s worth it. I used to worry that I was burying my own light to uplift others, but I had to realize that whenever I put others before myself, that’s my choice. I can just as easily choose to give myself the same love, respect, and consideration I show others. Gwendolyn Bennett’s life reminded me that we contain multitudes, even as one individual. You can be both the artist and the teacher. You can be a student and an editor. You can be an author and a publisher. We are limitless, but we still need rest and balance.
Learn More About Gwendolyn Bennett
Read Gwendolyn Bennett’s Poetry
So this brings me to our next adventure, Spoken Black Girl Magazine: Issue 7 is on the horizon! This next issue will be a general issue that focuses on our core themes of mental health awareness. You can visit the Submit page to learn more. We’re really going to need our community’s support to get this issue off the ground. If you’ve been waiting for your time to join our mission, this is it. We are going to need your voices for the new issue. If you don’t identify as a Black woman writer, you can always support our mission. If you are a Black woman writer, you know that it’s so crucial for us to preserve and nourish the spaces that uplift our voices. I hope you will continue to invest in the growth of this independent publishing company.
This year, we’re focused on increasing contributions to the Spoken Black Girl Contributor Fund, which helps us bring paid opportunities to our community of Black women writers.
More Ways to Support:
Work with Spoken Black Girl Services - We provide editing and publishing services for writers. Learn more about how Spoken Black Girl can help support your journey.
Join Write Heal Thrive - Now is the perfect time to deepen your wellness writing practice with Write Heal Thrive. Right now, memberships are a one-time community-friendly price of $5. Enjoy more SBG with Write Heal Thrive.
Advertise With Us - Each issue of Spoken Black Girl is sponsored by wellness businesses that believe in our mission. Inquire about ad space in the print issue.
In the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." I have the same hope for Spoken Black Girl, not only to survive, but thrive as a home for Black women writers. Thank you for joining us on this transformational journey.
