Bernice Love Wiggins facts for kids
Bernice Love Wiggins (also known as Bernice Love Clay) was an amazing African American poet. She wrote her poems during a special time called the Harlem Renaissance. Her work was printed in many newspapers, including the El Paso Herald, Chicago Defender, and the Houston Informer. Her poems appeared in newspapers all over Texas.
About Bernice Love Wiggins
Bernice Love Wiggins was born in Austin, Texas, on March 4, 1897. Her father, Jessie Austin Love, was also a poet. He had gone to college and was a Sunday school leader at a church in Austin.
When Bernice was only six years old, she became an orphan in 1903. She then moved to El Paso, Texas, and was raised by her aunt, Margaret Spiller. Bernice went to the Douglass school in El Paso. This school was for Black students only, due to segregation laws at the time. Later, when she published her poems, she thanked one of her teachers, Alice Lydia McGowan. Her old principal, William Coleman, even wrote the introduction to her book. He said that Bernice had "natural poetic feelings" from a young age.
Bernice married Allen D. Wiggins in 1915. She later divorced him sometime in the 1920s and moved to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, she married Thomas Brackett Clay. Not much is known about her life during this time. Bernice died on January 27, 1936. She was buried as Bernice Love Clay in the Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Bernice's Poetry and Books
Bernice Love Wiggins wrote a book of poems called Tuneful Tales. It was published in 1925. This book has 102 poems. Many of her poems were written in a special style called dialect. This means she wrote words the way people actually spoke them.
Her style of writing connects her to the Harlem Renaissance. This was a time when many Black artists, writers, and musicians created amazing works. Bernice's poems often talked about the experiences of the Black community during her time. She also wrote about unfair treatment, the challenges Black people faced, and poverty.
