Mae Virginia (or Valentine) Cowdery (January 10, 1909 – November 2, 1948) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

poet based in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. She is considered part of the wide-ranging artistic efforts inspired by the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

in New York City.Kathleen Collins, "Black Opals", ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance,'' 2 volumes, Ed. by Paul Finkelman and Cary Wintz, Psychology Press, 2004, p. 133. , 9780203319307

Biography

Cowdery was born in 1909 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. She was the only child of upwardly mobile parents; her mother was a

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

and an assistant director of the Bureau for Colored Children (later the Bureau for Child Care); her father Lemuel Cowdery was a caterer and United States postal worker. Cowdery discovered her talent for poetry as a child. She graduated from the prestigious Philadelphia High School for Girls and attended

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

in New York to study fashion design but did not graduate. While attending Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, she frequented night places in Greenwich Village. While still in high school, Cowdery published three poems in 1927 in ''

Black Opals ''Black Opals'' was an African American literary journal published in Philadelphia between spring 1927 and July 1928, associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Co-founded by Arthur Huff Fauset and Nellie Rathbone Bright, the magazine's contributor ...

'', a new literary journal founded that year. It was co-founded in 1927 by

Arthur Fauset Arthur Huff Fauset (January 20, 1899 – September 2, 1983) was an American civil rights activist, anthropologist, folklorist, and educator. Born in Flemington, New Jersey, he grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended Central High School. ...

, a folklorist and teacher, and Nellie Rathbone Bright, a teacher and poet who later published four novels. They were part of a literary and intellectual group in Philadelphia who also became known as the Black Opals. Cowdery's poem in the first issue, as well as one of Bright's, were among pieces to win praise by

Countee Cullen Countee Cullen (born Countee LeRoy Porter; May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946) was an American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Childhood Countee LeRoy Porter ...

, the new literary editor of '' Opportunity'', a larger journal based in Harlem, New York. Groups such as the Black Opals were being founded in other East Coast cities, such as Washington, DC and Boston. The group did not succeed in building a large enough audience for the journal, and published it only into 1928.Aberjhani, Sandra L. West. ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance''. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2003, p. 119 Cowdery won first prize in a 1927 poetry contest from ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

'' for her poem "Longings;" another poem won the Krigwa Prize. During the late 1920s, she established her reputation by publishing in journals, magazines and anthologies. She did not publish her own collection of poetry until her book ''We Lift Our Voices: And Other Poems'' (1936), and was one of the few African-American women poets in the first half of the 20th century to publish a book of her work. "It was critically well received." She committed suicide in New York City in 1948 for unknown reasons.Laura Alexander Harris, "Mae Virginia Cowdery"
''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance,'' 2 volumes, Ed. by Paul Finkelman and Cary Wintz, Psychology Press, 2004, pp. 259-260.

Works

* ''We Lift Our Voices: And Other Poems,'' 1936

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdery, Mae Virginia Harlem Renaissance 1909 births 1948 suicides American women poets African-American poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers Philadelphia High School for Girls alumni Writers from Philadelphia Suicides in New York City 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers