Poetry is all around you. In the lyrics you recite from your favorite song to the historical texts you annotate in class. You can never escape poetry. Poetry is the root of modern writings and teachings today. And within poetry comes the women who have represented their thoughts onto paper. Some important figures within poetry’s lengthy history have originated from the Hoosier State, Indiana.
Born in October 1863, Evaleen Stein was born in Lafayette. She received a liberal education and at an early age expressed those poetic talents. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago where she took an art course. She wrote her first poem in 1886 and she sent it to the Indianapolis Journal, where it was later published. She continued to contribute to the paper for many years to come, writing for local papers but especially providing for the Indianapolis Journal. In 1897, a paper in Boston brought out her first collection of poems, “One Way to the Woods”; it was quickly applauded within weeks of release. She went on to write her first two short stories in 1898. Later in 1903, the short stories, and two longer ones, were finally published in book form. Stein died in December 1923 in Lafayette, although her life has been lost, her legacy has been found and it continues to live on forever.
Marguerite Young. Born in Indianapolis, studied at Butler University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Iowa. She obtained her Master’s degree in 1936 majoring in Elizabethan and Jacobean English. Later she would receive her P.h.D in Philosophy and English. In 1937, Young had her first book, “Prismatic Ground”, published; she was teaching English in an Indianapolis high school at this time. By 1943, Young had moved to New York where she gained recognition for her works “Moderate Fable” and “Angels in the Forest”, which won her the poetry prize from the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Over the next fifty years, Young would reside in New York’s Greenwich Village, while traveling with a circle of fellow writers and poets. She wrote articles, poetry, and book reviews while she was continuing her teachings. Still to this day her work, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, is applauded for its amazing storytelling and even better writing.
Marie Evans was an African-American poet born in Toledo, Ohio in July 1919. After an unsuccessful run in college, dropping out in 1941, she moved to the East Coast to become a musician. She later left the East Coast and moved to Indianapolis. In the 1960s and 1970s, she became associated with the Black Arts Movement, she explored African-American culture and history through her writing. In 1969, Evans began a series of teachings at different universities such as Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and Indiana University at Bloomington, where she taught courses in African-American literature. From 1968 to 1973, Evans wrote, produced, and directed a television series called “The Black Experience” for WTTV in Indianapolis. In 1975, Evans received an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from Marian College. Her progressive writings focus on themes such as racism, culture, and identity that shaped a nation. The simplicity of the lyricism contrasted with the deepness of the themes kept a movement alive for decades.
Poetry writings have not been forgotten. Its legacy and progressive nature shall live on for centuries. These Hoosier women have found their way into history books alike with their moving scriptures of words that detail their lives and their losses. There is still poetry yet to be discovered. Pick up a book and don’t just open the book, open your eyes to the bricks these women have laid in the history that is now before you.
