Raymond Patterson was an African American poet, writer, and professor from Harlem, New York. Patterson received his BA from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and his Masters degree in English from New York University He has since become a prolific poet, whose work is highly anthologized. He is the author of 26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man and Other Poems as well as Elemental Blues, a book-length poem on the life of the enslaved African poet Phyllis Wheatley. His work often explored the roles of African Americans in the arts and society With his wife, Patterson created Black Poets Reading, a nonprofit speakers’ bureau. In 1968 he joined the faculty of New York City College, where he founded the Langston Hughes Festival, which he directed from 1973 to 1993. Patterson died in 2001 at the age of 71.