Georgia Douglas Johnson

Georgia Douglas Johnson (September 10, 1880 – May 15, 1966), was a poet and playwright. She was one of the earliest female African-American playwrights, and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

She was born Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp in 1880 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Laura Douglas and George Camp. Both parents were of mixed ancestry, with her mother having African-American and Native American heritage, and her father of African-American and English heritage.

Camp lived for much of her childhood in Rome, Georgia. She received her education in both Rome and Atlanta, where she excelled in reading, recitations and physical education. She also taught herself to play the violin. She developed a lifelong love of music that she expressed in her plays, which make distinct use of sacred music.

She graduated from Atlanta University's Normal School in 1896. She taught school in Marietta, Georgia. In 1902 she left her teaching career to pursue her interest in music, attending Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. She wrote music from 1898 until 1959. After studying in Oberlin, Johnson returned to Atlanta, where she became assistant principal in a public school.

 – Wikipedia

The Heart of a Woman

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,

As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,

Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam

In the wake of those echoes, the heart calls home.

The heart of a woman falls back with the night,

And enters some alien cage in its plight,

And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars

While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.

Calling Dreams

The right to make my dreams come true,

I ask, nay, I demand of life;

Nor shall fate's deadly contraband

Impede my steps, nor countermand;

Too long my heart against the ground

Has beat the dusty years around;

And now at length I rise! I wake!

And stride into the morning break!