Biography

Angelina Weld Grimke’s (1880 – 1958) roots are steeped in abolition and equality. Her father, Archibald Grimke, the second black person to graduate from Harvard law and vice-president of the NAACP, and her grand aunts Angelina and Sarah Grimke, distinguished advocates of women’s rights. At thirteen, her poem “The Grave in the Corner,” became known and published locally in the Northfolk County Gazzette; and her love of writing continued to bloom into adulthood. After graduating from the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics in Massachusetts (now Wellesley College) in 1902, Angelina began teaching English in Washington, D.C. which lasted until 1926. Overall, Grimke wrote 173 poems of which 31 were published in African American Literary Journals. Her poetry, short stories and essays were published in The Crisis, Opportunity, Alain Locke’s The New Negro, in Countee Cullen’s Caroling Dusk, Robert Kerlin’s Negro Poets and Their Poems, and in The Birth Control Review by Margaret Sanger. She is best known for her play Rachel, a three–act drama that was performed by an all-black cast in March of 1916 and directed by Nathaniel Guy. The play was used by the NAACP to protest The Birth of a Nation. Angelina stands as one of the pioneer playwrights of Protest Drama. (Full Bio)

Plays

RacheL (1916)

Rachel Loving loves children and longs to be a mother, but after seeing the devastating effects of racism on the children she cares for, and learning that her father and brother were lynched, she resolves never to marry or procreate. (Source)

Cast Requirements: 13 (10f, 3m)

Characters: Mrs. Mary Loving, Rachel Loving, Thomas Loving, Jimmy Mason, John Strong, Ethel Lane, Mary, Nancy, Edith, Jenny, Louise, Martha

Publication Info: Rachel; a play in three acts. McGrath Publication Company, 1969. (Link)

UNPUBLISHED

Mara (1925)

Mara, was written as two separate unpublished play drafts. The first draft is set as a melodrama, and the second ending with the three main characters–Mara, her mother, and her father– presumably lynched. (Source)

Cast Requirement: N/A

Characters: Mother, Daughter, Father, Carew…

Publication Info: “Angelina Weld Grimke Collection.” Archival Material. (Link)