The Buckley School's founder believed all public speakers should hone their presentation skills by reading poetry out loud. We keep that worthwhile practice alive by including a poem in our magazine each month for you to read aloud. Above, a photograph of Nellie Rathbone Bright with her university sorority. She is second row, center.
"Black Opals is a milestone in a long history of Black Philadelphia writers. It’s also a portal to understanding not only more about Philly’s connections to the Harlem Renaissance, but also how renaissances were happening in other cities."
– on the renewed interest in Rathbone Bright's work
Nellie Rathbone Bright was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1898. When she was 12, her family moved to Philadelphia. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English.
Several years later, Rathbone Bright cofounded a literary magazine in Philadelphia, which took its title—Black Opals—from a line in her poem "Longings." Though her writing was praised by Countee Cullen and the magazine was well-regarded, Black Opals managed to publish only four issues before ceasing publication in 1928.
Rathbone Bright went on to write a history textbook and serve as principal at three public schools in Philadelphia. She also became a landscape painter and taught African-American history to other teachers. She died in in 1977.
"We were all Nellie Bright's children and she expected great things from us. And so she created a wonderful school."
– Historian Allen Ballard
Interest in Black Opals has grown over the last few years, with the journal finding new readers and enthusiasts. A set of all four issues sold at auction in 2021 for $45,000.
Below, the poem that inspired the title of her literary magazine for you to read out loud.
Longings
by Nellie Rathbone Bright
I want to slay all the things just things
That they tell me I must do.
I would drown them all in the tears I weep
When each breathless day is through.
I want to flee to a cool sand dune
On a wind-swept beach where the humming tune
Of the wind, and the waves, and the heart of me
Drams in my ears, and my lips are wet with the tang of the sea.
I want to feel the rain on my cheek,
The thrill that comes from a lark's long note,
I want to see the sky at dawn thru the lacy green of a willow tree.
I want to look deep in a pool at night, and see the stars
Flash flame like the fire in black opals.
