Caribbean (Afro-Caribbean Poets and Black American travelers in the Caribbean)
First, many U.S. based Black poets who participated in the growth of African American writing were of Caribbean origin, including especially Claude McKay (Jamaica), Eric Walrond (Guiana), William Stanley Braithwaite (Guiana), George Reginald Margetson (St. Kitts), and Arthur Schomburg (Puerto Rico). Poems and essays by these writers are included below. Some of these writers wrote frequently about their early lives or family backgrounds, while others only addressed their Caribbean connections infrequently. (Claude McKay is clearly in the former category -- he published two books of poetry before he left Jamaica, and continued to invoke Jamaican settings even long after moving to the U.S. By contrast, George Reginald Margetson and William Stanley Braithwaite addressed their Caribbean backgrounds more sparingly.
A number of Black American poets were influenced by travels or work in the Caribbean. Two of the most prominent poets in this category might be Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson. Johnson spent a good deal of time in Latin America, working as U.S. consul in Nicaragua and Venezuela between 1906 and 1913. Johnson also correspondend frequently with the Afro-Latino editor and bibliographer, Arthur Schomburg. Johnson was especially interested in an Afro-Cuban poet Schomburg knew well, but who was unknown to the broader African American community, Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdes (who published as Placido).
A third category of Caribbean engagement came in the form of narrative ballads focusing on the story of the Haitian revolution, often authored by African American writers who had never been to Haiti. These poems celebrated the Haitian revolution and its leader, Toussaint L'Ouverture, as a model of Black revolutionary spirit. Poems in this category are also included below. .
Finally, there are a few writers included below who remaine based in the Caribbean -- figures like Egbert Martin (who published as "Leo"), from Guiana, Leon Laviaux, a Martinician writer whose poetry was translated into English and published in the U.S. in 1914., and Amedee Brun, a Haitian poet whose poem "The Pool" was translated in English by Jessie Fauset in 1914