African American Poetry encompasses 250 years of poetry from 1770-2020. I am glad I persevered finishing this poetry beast of 1170 pages. The book starts with an in-depth introduction explaining all the parts and highlighting some poets. I thought of giving up sometimes but the poetry collection includes many, many poets that I would find gems and continue. My gems - highlighted sometimes in my page updates - will probably be different than the gems you will find in this poetry collection. Personally, it took me longer to read the older poems since English is not my first language. However, since I read the book 'normally' it became easier for me as I read more poems.

The collection spreads the 250 years over 8 parts:
1. Bury Me in A Free Land 1770-1899
2. Lift Every Voice 1900-1918
3. The Dark Tower 1919-1936
4. Ballads of Remembrance 1936-1959
5. Ideas of Ancestry 1960-1975
6. Blue Light Sutras 1976-1989
7. Praise Songs for the Day 1990-2008
8. After the Hurricane 2009-2020

I would definitely recommend this poetry collection to any poetry lover and advice them to read it how they want to. Start in the middle, skip to the end. However, you like it.