Nanina Alba

Nanina Alba (1915–1968) was an American poet, short-fiction writer and professor. She taught at

Tuskegee Institute

, and authored jazz-inspired poetry collections Parchments (1963) and Parchments II (1967).

Education and family life

Alba was born Nannie Williemenia Champey in 1915 in

Alabama State College, at the latter earning an MA in education in 1955.^[1] She married Reuben Andres Alba on November 27, 1937, and they had two daughters, Andrea and Pan(chita) Adams (an illustrator).^[1]

Career

Alba taught music, French, and English in Alabama public schools before becoming a university professor,

Crisis, Phylon and Negro Digest.^[1] She wrote one of her first poems in 1929 when First Lady Lou Henry Hoover invited Jessie De Priest for tea at the White House; DePriest was the wife of the only African American member of Congress and Alba was angered by the criticism of the invitation.^[4] The Chicago Defender published the poem, which Alba had sent under the pseudonym Wilhelm Champes, fearing her father's disapproval, though later she found he had saved the clipping.^[4]

Death

Alba died of cancer on June 24, 1968, at Macon County Hospital.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Alba, Nanina (1915–1968)." Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, edited by Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer, vol. 1, Yorkin Publications, 2007, p. 29. Gale eBooks. Accessed 24 Sept. 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Institute Teacher Dies at Tuskegee". The Montgomery Advertiser. 1968-06-26. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
^ "Nanina Alba Publishes New Poems". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1967-06-17. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
^ ^a ^b "Childhood Memory". The Montgomery Advertiser. 1964-10-25. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-09-24.

[:0-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Alba, Nanina (1915–1968)." Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, edited by Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer, vol. 1, Yorkin Publications, 2007, p. 29. Gale eBooks. Accessed 24 Sept. 2021.

[:1-2] "Institute Teacher Dies at Tuskegee". The Montgomery Advertiser. 1968-06-26. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-09-24.

[3] "Nanina Alba Publishes New Poems". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1967-06-17. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-09-24.

[:2-4] "Childhood Memory". The Montgomery Advertiser. 1964-10-25. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-09-24.

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