October Journey contains poems dedicated to Harriet Tubman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others. There are also occasional poems, most notably one dedicated to Phillis Wheatley. The occasion was the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, organized by Walker in 1973 to mark the bicentennial of the first book published by an African American woman, Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects. Bringing together Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, June Jordan, Audrey Lourde, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker and others, the festival suggested a clear line of poetic descent from Wheatley, through Walker and on to the younger poets.
