LUTHER COLLEGE > Happenings > Luther News > Nationally renowned educator, publisher, poet Madhubuti to present Martin Luther King, Jr. Day address at Luther College on Jan. 21

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Jan. 11, 2001

Nationally renowned educator, publisher, poet Madhubuti to present Martin Luther King, Jr. Day address at Luther College on Jan. 21

Haki R. Madhubuti, educator, publisher, editor and poet, will be the keynote speaker for Luther College's observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 21.

Madhubuti will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Luther Center for Faith and Life. His lecture, "Black Leadership in a Complex World," is open to the public with no charge for admission.

Award-winning poet Madhubuti is a pivotal figure in the development of a strong black literary tradition in the United States, emerging in the era of the 1960s and continuing his work as an artist and publishing entrepreneur into the new century. He has published 23 books - some under his former name, Don L. Lee - and is one of the world's best-selling authors of poetry and non-fiction works with more than three million books in print.

An educator who has dedicated his life to America's black literary talent, Madhubuti is professor of English and founder and director-emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at Chicago State University. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent and the founder of the annual Gwendolyn Brooks Writers' Conference at CSU.

Madhubuti is the founder, publisher and chairman of the board of Third World Press, a Chicago-based company which has published works by black writers since 1967. He is a founder and board member of the National Association of Black Book Publishers, director of the National Black Writers Retreat and contributes articles to Black Issues Book Review.

Honors he has received for his poetry include the Illinois Arts Council Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1991 he received an American Book Award and was named author of the year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. In 2000 he received the Henry Blakely Poetry Award from poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

One of his best-selling books, "Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous: The American Family in Transition," published in 1990, has sold more than one million copies. His latest books include "Claiming Earth: Race, Rage, Rape, Redemption," "Groundwork: New and Selected Poems 1966-96" and "HeartLove: Wedding and Love Poems." His long-awaited new book, "Tough Notes: Messages to Young Black Men," will be published in the spring.

Madhubuti's poetry and essays were published in more than 30 anthologies between 1997 and 2000. He recently co-edited two volumes of literary works from Gallery 37: "Releasing the Spirit" in 1998 and "Describe the Moment" in 2000.

Madhubuti is a frequent lecturer and speaker. He has served a keynote speaker at numerous conferences and workshops and at more than 1,000 colleges, universities, libraries and community centers across the U.S. He is a proponent of independent black institutions.

Madhubuti holds the master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa. His teaching career includes faculty positions at Columbia College of Chicago, Cornell University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Howard University, Morgan State University and the University of Iowa.

In 2001 he was named Chicago State University's Distinguished University Professor, and in 1996 he received an honorary doctoral degree from DePaul University. The State of Maryland House of Delegates, the State of Alabama House of Representatives the Detroit City Council have all honored him with testimonial resolutions, and his birth city, Little Rock, Ark., honored him the "Haki R. Madhubuti Day" on April 9, 1999.

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