ABSTRACT
Calvin Coolidge Hernton considered art and social commentary to be integrally connected. Although he viewed himself foremost as a poet, his major contributions to African-American literature and culture generally are considered to be his bold address of the relationship between sex and race and early and vocal support for the importance of African-American women writers such as Alice Walker and Ann Petry. Hernton's poetry is connected to the Black Arts Movement and later developments in performance poetry by its skillful use of oral traditions, as well as references to African-American culture and the African diaspora, such as "West at Bay", dedicated to "Ghana, 1957", which appeared in Sixes and Sevens and was reprinted under the title "Ghana, 1957" in Medicine Man. Ballads and blues poems in Medicine Man echo Sterling A. Brown and Langston Hughes by using a folk-based aesthetic to create sophisticated African-American cultural portraits and tributes.
