Nanina Alba (1915–1968) was an American poet, short-fiction writer and professor. She taught atAlabama State College (1947 to 1961), then atTuskegee Institute, and authored jazz-inspired poetry collectionsParchments (1963) andParchments II (1967).
Alba was born Nannie Williemenia Champey in 1915 inMontgomery, Alabama.[1] She was the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. I.C.H. Champey.[2] Alba attended Haines Institute thenKnoxville College, earning an AB in 1935.[1] She also studied atIndiana University andAlabama 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]
Alba taught music, French, and English in Alabama public schools before becoming a university professor,[1] first as a tenured member of the English department faculty atAlabama State College from 1947 to 1961,[2] then as professor of English atTuskegee Institute.[1] A poet, jazz rhythms and black vernacular featured in her collectionsParchments (1963) andParchments II (1967); the latter was illustrated by her daughter Pan Adams with pen and ink drawings.[3] Alba's poetry was also published in journals likeCrisis,Phylon andNegro Digest.[1] She wrote one of her first poems in 1929 when First LadyLou Henry Hoover invitedJessie 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]
Alba died of cancer on June 24, 1968, atMacon County Hospital.[2]