Between Thunder and Lightning - Countee Cullen

Reintroducing Countee Cullen (1903-1946), a poet whose life and work cannot be easily classification. Writing at the height of the Harlem Renaissance era, Cullen believed deeply in poetic beauty, form, meter, and universal themes, even as the world insisted on reading him through rigid racial and moral frames. His poetry lives in tension: between faith and doubt, protest and lyricism, belonging and alienation.

This episode situates Countee within the movement’s internal diversity of thought. Poems like “Heritage” and “Yet Do I Marvel” reveal a writer grappling with God, history, and the burden of representation, while archival silences around his intimacy and desire point to the quiet strategies required to survive public life in the early twentieth century.

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Binary Bashers is produced by Embracing All of Me. EAOM is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ BIPOC, people of color, our kin and friends. ⁠⁠⁠Visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FAQs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sources page⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about how this episode was developed.