References 

Welburn, Ron.  Hartford’s Ann Plato and the Native Borders of Identity.

Williams, Kenny J. Introduction to Essays; Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces.

Plato, Ann. Essays; Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Poetry. Hartford, 1841.

Beeching, Barbara.  Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Afro-American Middle Class in Hartford, Connecticut, 1790–1860. 

Public Resources 

• ConnecticutHistory.org – Articles on Hartford’s Black history 

• Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library 

• Connecticut State Library digital newspaper archives 

• Poetry Foundation biography of Lydia Huntley Sigourney 

“2021 Population Profile of Puerto Ricans in the City of Hartford, Connecticut.” UConn Puerto Rican Studies Initiative. Accessed May 23, 2025. https://puerto-rican-studies-initiative-clas.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3555/2023/08/UConnPRSI_CTDash_HartfordCity_2021.pdf

“About.” Leani M. Lopez. Accessed May 31, 2025. https://www.leanilopez.com/about.

“About Me.” Shakira Perez. Accessed May 31, 2025. https://www.shakiraperez.com/about.

“Background.” Hartford Immigrant Welcoming Project. Accessed June 5, 2025. https://action-lab.org/immigrant-welcoming/background/.

Bessy Reyna. Accessed May 1, 2025. https://bessyreyna.com/.

“A Decade of Change: Puerto Rican Politics in Harford, Connecticut, 1969-1979.” José E. Cruz. Journal of American Ethnic History, Vol. 16. No 3 (Spring, 1997), pp. 45-80.

“Faculty profile: Diana Aldrete.” Accessed May 31, 2025. https://internet3.trincoll.edu/facProfiles/Default.aspx?fid=1480218.

“Forage.” Caycedo-Kimura, Luisa. All Were Limones. S.I.: Hilary Tham Capital Collection, 2025.

“Grace Figueroa ‘Poeticsouldier’ Bio.” NBMAA. Accessed May 31, 2025. https://nbmaa.org/grace-figueroa-poeticsouldier-bio.

“Hartford Yard Goats Promotions.” MiLB.com. Accessed June 5, 2025. https://www.milb.com/hartford/tickets/promotions.

“Ines Rivera-Prosdocimi.” University of Hartford. Accessed April 4, 2025.https://www.hartford.edu/directory/arts-science/rivera-prosdocimi-ines.aspx.

“Libguides: Hartford History Center Exhibits: Puerto Ricans Making Hartford Home.” Puerto Ricans Making Hartford Home – Hartford History Center Exhibits – LibGuides at Hartford Public Library. Accessed June 5, 2025. https://hplct.libguides.com/hhcexhibits/puertoricanhartford.

Luisa Caycedo-Kimura. Accessed April 12, 2025. https://luisacaycedokimura.com/.

“Lunch Walk.” Reyna, Bessy. She Remembers. Hartford, CT: Andrew Mountain Press, 1997.

“Puerto Rican Day Parade 2025 – September 21st, 2025.” CICD Hartford PR Parade. Accessed June 5, 2005. https://www.hartfordprparade.com/en/events/parade.
Robertoalfaro.com. Accessed May 31, 2025. https://robertoalfaro.com/.

“Surrogate Twin” (Published 2019). New York Times. Accessed May 20, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/magazine/poem-surrogate-twin.html.

“Unbound.” Shakira Perez. Brave Bird: A Choreopoem. Independently Published. 2021.

Web Resources

LatinoStories.com
CTLatinoNews.com
IdentidadLatina.com

Diana Aldrete (1978-) is Assistant Professor of Language and Culture Studies and Human Rights Studies at Trinity College. She has published fiction in Somos en escrito and Powerful Latinas Rising, Díalogo: an Interdisciplinary Studies Journal. She was one of the featured poets in the Honoring Latina Poets program sponsored by the Hartford Public Library and Margaret Gibson, CT Poet Laureate.

Roberto Alfaro (1956-), a retired City of Hartford police officer, is the author of the memoir, Fighting Through Hurdles of My Life (Halo Publishing International, 2022). Alfaro has worked as an actor and model. In his writing, he shares his journey from the South Bronx.

Grace Figueroa AKA PoeticSouldier (1990-) is an up-and-coming spoken word poet who was born and raised in Hartford until the age of 14. She attended Hartford schools, including Hartford Middle School where her love of poetry was born after winning a writing contest. She attended Bulkeley High School and the University of Connecticut and served in the U.S. Army. She has performed her poetry in Hartford in places such as the Russell, Barcelona, the Connecticut Science Center and the Bushnell.

Leani Lopez (1989-) was born in Hartford and lived there until the age of four. She has written Slip of the Hand (Independently Published, 2021) and Lost in the Dark (Independently Published, 2022). She has also ghostwritten over 20 novels. She is working on the first book of what will be a series on queer pirates. She has also written To Court Death, a five-part audio drama. Her audio drama, Battle Cry, is live across multiple podcast platforms.

Johnston, Margaret Thompson. A Tribute to Martha Linsley Spencer, Connecticut Poet.  Hartford: Press of Finlay Brothers, 1956.

Martha Linsley Spencer Papers, Watkinson Library and College Archives, Trinity College,  Hartford, CT

“Miss Spencer Dies, had Taught Dramatic Arts.” The Hartford Courant (1923-), Jul 18,  1954.

Morse, Allen. “Worthy Tribute.” The Hartford Courant (1923-), Apr 01, 1956.

Morse, F. Samuel. “A Gallant Lady.” The Hartford Courant, July 25, 1954.

Spencer, Martha Linsley. “Nutmegs are Wooden.” Yankee Magazine, April 1947.

Spencer, Martha Linsley. Remembered Years, collected poems. Hartford, Connecticut:  Finlay Brothers Press, 1954.

Sullivan, Jessica. “The People Behind the Poetry: American Poets Martha Linsley Spencer and Edwin Arlington Robinson Reveal Their Prosaic Lives.” The People Behind the  Poetry (blog). April 10, 2021.

Cannon, Kelly. “Shepard, Odell.” American National Biography Vol. 19, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

“Civil Rights Actions Of ‘49 Assembly Lauded in Report by Odell Shepard.” Hartford Courant. July 23, 1949.

“Connecticut Mohegans Win Step in 200-Year Land Payment Fight.” New York City Herald-Tribune. May 16, 1941.

“Education: Trouble at Trinity.” Time. May 13, 1946. https://time.com/archive/6773216/education-trouble-at-trinity/.  Accessed August 16, 2025.

“Friendly Mohegans Greet 3,000 for Ancient Festival.” Hartford Times. August 25, 1941.

Gibson, Sally McCall. “Odell Shepard: The familiar essay.” Master’s Thesis, Florida Atlantic University. 1990. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: The Humanities & Social Sciences Collection. Accessed August 15, 2025.

Goodman, Lee. “Professor Shepard’s Book to be Published June First.” The Trinity Tripod. 35, no. 26 (May 30, 1939): 1-3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.29467324. Accessed August 13, 2025.

Kelly, Frank A. “Trinity in Books: Part II – The Twentieth Century.” Trinity College Alumni Magazine 2, no. 3 (January 1961): 4-5. JSTOR Shared Collections – Trinity College. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31569994. Accessed August 13, 2025.

“Lieut. Governor Lauds Indians at Mohegan Corn Festival.” Norwich Bulletin. August 25, 1941.

Martin, Stanley. Review of Connecticut, Past and Present by Odell Shepard. The New England Quarterly 13, no. 1 (March 1940): 152-154. Open JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/360695. Accessed August 13, 2025.

“Never Been Red, Shepard Writes Group: Replies to Report He Had Aided Communist ‘Peace Offensive.’” Hartford Courant. April 8, 1951.

[Obituary]. “Odell Shepard, Writer, Is Dead.” New York Times (July 20, 1967): 37. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/07/20/issue.html. Accessed August 13, 2025.

Odell Shepard Papers, Watkinson Library and College Archives, Trinity College, Hartford, CT.

“Odell Shepard.” Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature. Eds. Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycraft. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1942. https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury01kuni. Accessed August 16, 2025.

“Prejudice Discussed by Active Panel.” The Trinity Tripod. Trinity College 43, no. 9 (May 10, 1946): 1, 5. Trinity College Digital Repository. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.29484109. Accessed August 13, 2025.

“Reflections in a Cabin.” Hartford Courant. June 3, 2006. https://www.courant.com/2006/06/03/reflections-in-a-cabin/. Accessed August 15, 2025.

Shepard, Odell, ed. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1921. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006534640. Accessed August 13, 2025.

Shepard, Odell, and Robert Hillyer, eds. Essays of Today [1926-1927]. New York: The Century Company, 1928. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006606839. Accessed February 24, 2026.

Shepard, Odell. Connecticut Past and Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939.

Shepard, Odell. “Contemporary Authors, Gale Research Company, Detroit, Michigan.” Typescript (ca. 1950s) in the Odell Shepard Papers, Watkinson Library and College Archives, Trinity College, Hartford, CT.

Shepard, Odell. “The Cabin Down the Glen.” Cincinnati: Rick Sowash Publishing Co., 2006. https://www.sowash.com/pdf/The_Cabin_Down_the_Glen.pdf. Accessed August 16, 2025.

“Shepard Hits Steel Mill Bill Scope: Raps Giving Right of Eminent Domain in Four East Counties.” Hartford Courant. February 6, 1951.

Sowash, Rick. “A Special e-mail from Rick Sowash (April 15, 2020).” Eden Valley Enterprises: Expanding Horizons Through Drama. https://edenvalleyenterprises.org/progdesc/gatewood/sowashglen.htm. Accessed August 15, 2025.

“The American Story” Papers, Finding Aid. Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York, NY. https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/archives/cul-4078599. Accessed August 16, 2025.

Trinity College Bulletin, 1922-1923. Trinity College, January 1, 1923. Trinity College Digital Repository. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.38786897. Accessed August 13, 2025.

Witherell, Elizabeth. “A Tribute to Walter Harding.” The Thoreau Society Bulletin 215 (Spring 1996): 2. JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23401000. Accessed August 31, 2025.

Works Cited

Barone, Dennis. “Timber Edge.” The Disguise of Events. Quale Press, 2002.

—. “Unpack It.” Frame Narrative. BlazeVOX, 2018.

Brito, Manuel and Richard Deming. “Between Innovation and Revelation: A Conversation with Dennis Barone.” Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, 52 (2006): 137-142, https://riull.ull.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/915/17366/RCEI_52_(%202006)_11.pdf?sequence=1

“Dennis Barone.” In Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2008. Gale In Context: Biography (accessed August 10, 2025). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000141158/BIC?u=29002&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=85eaa8b2.

Dennis Barone Selected Bibliography

Poetry
Far-Dale: New and Selected Poems. Nauset Press, 2025.

After Math. Cyberwit.net, 2023.

Parallel Lines. Shearsman, 2011.

Separate Objects. Left Hand Books, 1998.

Fiction 
On the Bus: Selected Stories. BlazeVOX, 2011.

North Arrow.  Quale Press, 2008.

God’s Whisper. Spuyten Duyvil, 2005.

Temple of the Rat. Left Hand Books, 2000.

Mixed Genres
A Field Guide to the Rehearsal. BlazeVOX Books, 2022.

Second Thoughts, Bordighera Press, 2017.

Sound / Hammer. Quale Press, 2015.

Precise Machine. Quale Press, 2008.

Edited Collections 
Poets’ Poets: A Renaissance of Words. Spuyten Duyvil, 2025.

Of Hartford in Many Lights: Celebrating Hartford’s Buildings. Edited with Deborah Ducoff-Barone. Grayson Books, 2024.

Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776.  Wesleyan University Press, 2012.

Visiting Wallace: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Wallace Stevens. Edited with James Finnegan. University of Iowa Press, 2009.

Websites
Dennis Barone: Audio Recording Archive. https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Barone.php
Dennis Barone, Author page. https://dennisbarone.wordpress.com/

“An Address to the Negroes in the State of New York” (1786)

by Jupiter Hammon

At the age of 76, Hammon delivered this speech to a group of free and enslaved Black individuals at the founding meeting of the African Society in New York City. In it, he does not call for immediate emancipation but urges younger generations to pursue spiritual freedom and prepare for eventual liberation. He states that in heaven, there would be no judgment based on race or status, offering a hopeful vision of justice that deeply resonated with his audience. 

This address became one of his most widely circulated works. It was printed and shared by abolitionist groups including the New York Quakers and the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, increasing Hammon’s visibility across the Northeast. This  is Hammon’s most powerful critique of slavery and vision for freedom.

Continue reading An Address to the Negroes in the State of New York →

“A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death” (1782)

by Jupiter Hammon

This piece was written as a moral guide for young people. Like much of his work, it focuses on spiritual preparation, the afterlife, and the importance of faith. It is one of the most approachable of Hammon’s writings for students today, especially for discussing how religion shaped the lives of African Americans during this era.  Continue reading A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death →

“An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley” (1778)

by Jupiter Hammon

This poem, composed while in Hartford, was dedicated to Phillis Wheatley, a fellow Black poet and devout Christian. Although the two never met, Hammon admired Wheatley’s work. His poem to her includes twenty-one four-line stanzas, each paired with a verse from the Bible. The address encourages her to continue writing and stay true to her Christian faith. It also shows Hammon’s belief in the power of Black literature to inspire and guide others. The poem highlights the intellectual exchange between early Black writers. Continue reading An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley →

“An Evening Thought” (1761)

by Jupiter Hammon

In 1761, Hammon became the first Black poet published in the United States when his poem, “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries,” was printed as a broadside in Hartford. Written on Christmas Day in 1760, the poem expresses his deep Christian faith and marks the beginning of a decades-long literary career. This is Hammon’s first published poem and a foundational piece in the history of African American literature. Continue reading An Evening Thought →