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Rosey E. Pool | |
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| Born | Rosa Eva Pool (1905-05-07)7 May 1905 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 29 September 1971(1971-09-29) (aged 66) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Poet and anthologist |
Rosey E. Pool (bornRosa Eva Pool; 7 May 1905 – 29 September 1971) was a Dutch poet and anthologist of African-American poetry.
Pool was born and raised in a secular Jewish family inAmsterdam, Netherlands. In the 1920s, she participated in Dutch Popular Front youth movements, such as the socialistArbeiders Jeugd Centrale (AJC) and the Social Democratic Students Club (SDSC). In 1927, she was one of the founders of theSocialistische Kunstenaarskring (SKK, or Socialist Artists Circle).
In August 1927, shortly after her engagement to the Berlin jurist and later Hamburg senatorGerhard Kramer (1904–1973), Pool moved toBerlin. There, she studied English literature at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (currently known as theHumboldt University). Although she later claimed to be an anthropologist, she majored in philology. She wrote her dissertation onThe Poetry of the American Negro, but was unable to finish this because of anti-Jewish measures by the Nazis. In 1935, Kramer and Pool divorced. From Berlin, Pool helped German Jews to flee to the Netherlands, by providing them addresses. In January 1939, shortly after theKristallnacht, Pool returned to Amsterdam.
During theSecond World War, she taught at the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam (withAnne Frank among her pupils). Pool became involved in a German Jewish resistance group named Van Dien, which had formed around the Tehuis Oosteinde.[1] In September 1943, this resistance group helped her to escape from the Nazi transit campWesterbork. She hid in the town ofBaarn, wrote resistance poetry and compiled a bundle of African-American poetry.
By the end of 1949, Pool had moved to London to live with her friend "Isa" Isenberg.[2]
After the war, Pool established correspondence with such well-known African-American writers and poets asCountee Cullen,Langston Hughes,W. E. B. Du Bois,Naomi Madgett,Owen Dodson,Gordon Heath, andRobert Hayden. From her London home, she became involved in theBlack Arts Movement, both in Britain and the United States.
Pool traveled to the United States as aFulbright scholar and withUNCF funding (1959–1960), and was a guest lecturer at a number of colleges in the Deep South. In the United States, she contributed to the emancipation of African Americans in theCivil Rights Movement by comparing anti-Jewish measures of the Nazis with the segregation of the American South. When Pool was a guest lecturer atAlabama A and M, she organized two writers' conferences, withSamuel W. Allen (Paul Vesey),Margaret Burroughs,Dudley Randall andMari Evans. Ed Simpkins explained: "it was Rosey Pool's [book]Beyond the Blues that first brought us together (...)."[3] An LP also entitledBeyond the Blues was produced in London byArgo in 1963, with featured readers includingBrock Peters,Gordon Heath,Vinette Carroll, andCleo Laine.[4]
In 1966, Pool was a jury member at theWorld Festival of Black Arts, held inDakar, Senegal. The jury awarded prizes to the poet Robert Hayden andNelson Mandela.[5] On 30 April 30, 1965,[6] Pool became a follower of theBaháʼí Faith. She was visible promoting the religion.[7][8][9]
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