On the February 21 Poetry Show, host Dennis Morton presented readings of a selection of African-American poetry to commemorate Black History Month. In the first half-hour, Dennis read poems and brief biographies of the poets. Many of the poems can be found on the Poetry Foundation website, and included:

James Weldon Johnson - The Awakening

Robert Hayden - Those Winter Sundays

Rita Dove - Canary

Al Young - The Blues Don't Change

Dudley Randall - The Ballad of Birmingham

Michael S. Harper - American History; Dear John, Dear Coltrane

Toi Derricote - Black Boys Play the Classics

Maya Angelou - Caged Bird

Harriet Mullin - Up From Slobbery

Natasha Tretheway - Entitlement

 

In the show's second half, we heard a number of recorded readings from a CD included with the book,  The 100 Best African-American Poems, edited by Nikki Giovanni (2010). The subtitle reads "(but I cheated)", acknowledging the fact that the book actually contains more than 100 poems.