Kuumba Series

As poet, publisher, editor and educator, Haki R. Madhubuti has been a pivotal figure in the development of a strong Black literary tradition, emerging from the Civil Rights and Black Arts era of the 60s and continuing to the present. Over the years, he has published more than 28 books (some under his former name, Don L. Lee) and is one of the world's best-selling authors of poetry and non-fiction, with books in print in excess of 3 million. His Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous?: The African American Family in Transition (1990) has sold more than 1 million copies. Selected titles include Don't Cry, Scream! (1969), GroundWork: New and Selected Poems 1966-1996 (1996), HeartLove: Wedding and Love Poems (1998), Tough Notes: A Healing Call For Creating Exceptional Black Men (2002), and Run Toward Fear (2004). His poetry and essays were published in more than 65 anthologies from 1997 to 2007. His latest release is YellowBlack: The First Twenty One Years of a Poet's Life (2006) , a memoir of the people and places that were a part of his early life.

Professor Madhubuti is a proponent of independent Black institutions. He founded Third World Press in 1967 with a $400 honorarium he received from a poetry reading, a used mimeograph machine, and other individuals committed to the local and national Black Arts and empowerment movements. He is also a founder of the Institute of Positive Education/New Concept School (1969), co-founder of Betty Shabazz International Charter School (1998), Barbara A. Sizemore Middle School (2005), and DuSable Leadership Academy (2005), all of which are in Chicago .

An award-winning poet and recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, American Book Award the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award and others. Professor Madhubuti is also a founder and chairman of the board of the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. In 2006, he was awarded the Literary Legacy Award from the National Black Writers Conference for creating and supporting Black literature and for building Black literary institutions. He received his third honorary Doctor of Letters from Spelman College in May of 2006.

Professor Madhubuti earned his MFA from the University of Iowa . His distinguished teaching career includes faculty positions at Columbia College of Chicago, Cornell University , University of Illinois at Chicago , Howard University , Morgan State University , and the University of Iowa . Currently he is the University Distinguished Professor and professor of English, founder and director-emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Chicago State University .

click here to book speaker