Countee Cullen By: JohnCountee Cullen (Porter) was considered by many to be the most talented of the Harlem Renaissance poets. Cullen was a novelist and a playwright, but he was known by most as a poet. He was born on March 30, 1903 in New York. Cullen was adopted at some point between the time of his birth and 1918. By 1921, he changed his last name to Cullen, from his adopted mothers last name.
He attended DeWitt Clinton high school between (1918-1921).
During this time he was editor of his schools newspaper and of the magazine Magpie, and during High School he wrote his first poetry that received notice. He also attended New York University for four years. Not much is known of the early years of his childhood up until 1918.
Between the time of Cullen’s birth 1918 he was adopted by Rev. FrederickA. and Carolyn Bell (Mitchell) Cullen of the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem. It is unknown how old Cullen was when he got adopted. Rev. Cullen regained Countee Cullen’s faith back in himself by getting him to understand that any goal or dream that he had to fulfill it.
Countee received much help both mentally and physically from his adopted father, it is said that if Countee would not have been adopted by the Reverend he would not have gone as far as he eventually did. Countee Cullen was considered one of the most talented of the Harlem Renaissance poets. A lot of his poetry was written during his high school and college years. During high school Cullen won his first contest, a citywide competition, with the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Life,” a non-racial poem. Cullen was also the editor of his high school paper and a literary magazine Magpie. He furthered his wisdom and education at New York university, where he joined an all white fraternity called Phi Beta Kappa Honors.
The Homework on Middle School vs. High School
One, the closing of one’s grade school years, and the other, a gateway to young adulthood. Middle school and High school, two very important times of a young person’s life, share some similarities and many differences. Middle school, just like its title explains, is the time when students are stuck in the middle of childhood and young adulthood. People start to mature from earlier elementary ...
Cullen was awarded the Wittier By nner Poetry Prize for his expressive culture oriented poetry. During his college career he created the book Color for which he won the Harmon Foundations first gold medal for literature. His poems had a direct relationship to the Harlem Renaissance, his poems either included ideological aspects and culture aspects.
