Countee Cullen was born in 1903 & died in 1946. He was a writer & a poet & was one of the strongest voices associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of black art & literature in New York City in the 1920's. Not much is known about his early childhood except that he was born Countee Porter & adopted by Rev. & Mrs. Frederick Cullen, who provided him with a fine education. He excelled in his studies, receiving honors in Latin, mathematics, English, history, & French. In 1925, he graduated phi beta kappa from New York University & published his first book of poems, Color.
After receiving his Master's degree from Harvard University, Cullen became an editor & critic & later wrote plays & novels, but it was his poetry that singled him out as a voice to be listened to. Though he wrote on universal themes such as love, religion, & death, Cullen believed in the richness & importance of his African-American heritage & deftly applied traditional forms of verse, using melodic meter & rhyme to African-American themes.
Countee Cullen created "rap" music through his poems by inserting rhythm & music. Because Opera & Jazz singing reigned more during that time, "rap"(rhyming with poetry) was not easily carried into the 30's & 40's. It didn't pick up until the late 70's & on into the 80's & beyond, paving the way for artists like, Run DMC, The Fat Boys, NWA, Queen Latifah, & MC Lyte, to name a few. In ancient Africa, talking in rhyme & adding the drum beat while rocking back & forth was called Rhetoric.
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