Nanina Alba

Nanina Alba (1915–1968) was an American poet, short-fiction writer and professor. She taught at Alabama State College (1947 to 1961), then at Tuskegee Institute, and authored jazz-inspired poetry collections Parchments and Parchments II (1967).

Education and family life Alba was born Nannie Williemenia Champey in 1915 in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. I.C.H. Champey. Alba's poetry was also published in journals like Crisis, Phylon and Negro Digest. 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.