Anna Minerva Henderson
Anna Minerva Henderson | |
|---|---|
Henderson in a 1905 class photo at Saint John High School | |
| Born | August 8, 1887 Saint John, New Brunswick |
| Died | August 1987 (aged 99–100) Saint John, New Brunswick |
| Resting place | Fernhill Cemetery |
| Occupation | teacher, stenographer, principal clerk, poet |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Notable works | "Parliament Hill, Ottawa" (sonnet, 1937), Citadel (chapbook, 1967) |
Anna Minerva Henderson (August 8, 1887 – 1987) was a teacher, civil servant, and poet from Saint John, New Brunswick. According to the New Brunswick Black History Society, during Canada's centennial in 1967 she published a "chaplet" containing 22 poems which is believed to be the first book to be published by a Black woman who was born in Canada. In 2004, Henderson and New Brunswick publisher Abraham Beverley Walker were the subject of the 2004 W. Stewart MacNutt Memorial Lecture at the University of New Brunswick by George Elliot Clarke who at the time was serving as the Poet Laureate of Toronto. In 2006, Clarke published "Anna Minerva Henderson: An Afro-New Brunswick Response to Canadian (Modernist) Poetry" in the journal Canadian Literature, based upon this lecture.