Publication details
Midwife of the New Negro: The Pedagogic Aspect of Jessie Fauset’s Poetry in and Editorship of The Brownies’ Book
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | This paper looks at the poems and editorship of Jessie Fauset, with special attention devoted to the poems written and chosen for publication by Fauset for the NAACP children magazine The Brownies' Book. Through analyzing Fauset's poetry and her editorial work, the paper traces a connection between Fauset's poetry and her role of one of Harlem Renaissance's midwives, thus highlighting her role of educator and mentor to young writers and readers. The fact that in her work as editor Fauset was able to track, support and have such gifted writers published, points to her talent for finding and molding young raw writers. Langston Hughes, among others, was Fauset's discovery; in fact, his first poems were published in The Brownies' Book, which led to Fauset's inclusion of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in the June 1921 issue of The Crisis (Sylvander 116). Nella Larsen, helped and encouraged by Fauset, also had two short works published in The Brownies' Book before getting on to having more serious and longer fictional texts printed. In similar manner, Fauset fostered the development of many talents through The Brownies' Book, introduced young writers to even younger readership and vice versa, while adding educational poems and other texts to the magazine herself. Thus, looking at Fauset through the prism of NAACP's short-lived children magazine unravels a pedagogic aspect of her role of the New Negro midwife. |