Alba, Nanina (1915–1968)

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Alba, Nanina (1915–1968)

African-American poet, short-story writer and educator. Born Nannie Williemenia Champey, 1915, in Montgomery, Alabama; died of cancer in 1968; dau. of Rev. I.C. Champey; attended Haines Institute; Knoxville College, AB, 1935; attended Indiana University; Alabama State College, MA in Education (1955); m. Reuben Andres Alba, Nov 27, 1937; children: daughters, Andrea and Pan(chita) Adams (illustrator).

Taught music, French, and English in public schools of Alabama; became professor of English at Tuskegee Institute; used jazz rhythms and black vernacular in poetry colle ctions Parchments (1963) and Parchments II (1967); poems also appeared in journals, including Crisis, Phylon and Negro Digest.