Evening with the Legends
Amiri Baraka, Mari Evans,
Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti
21st Annual Etheridge Knight Festival of the Arts
April 19, 2012
Indiana Landmarks
8:00 pm
Honoring Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks
June 7, 1917 - December 3, 2000
Gwendolyn Brooks, June 17, 1917 – December 3, 2000, is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, including Children Coming Home (The David Co., 1991); Blacks (1987); To Disembark (1981); The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1986); Riot (1969); In the Mecca (1968); The Bean Eaters (1960); Annie Allen (1949), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize; and A Street in Bronzeville (1945).
She also wrote numerous other books, including a novel Maud Martha (1953), and Report from Part One: an Autobiography (1972), and edited Jump Bad: A New Chicago Anthology (1971).
In 1968 she was named Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois, and from 198-1986 she was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She also received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Frost Medal, a National Endowment for the Arts award, the Shelley Memorial Award,
and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Amiri Baraka
, poet icon and revolutionary political activist, is the author of over forty books of essays, poems drama, and music history and criticism and has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.
Baraka is the renowned founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s which was the virtual blueprint for a new American theater with works influenced by musicians such as John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution.
A retired professor of African Studies at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995 and was named the 2002 Poet Laureate of New Jersey and Newark Public Schools.
Some of his most noted performances and works include the signature study on African-American music, Blues People (1963), and the play Dutchman (1963). His recent works include Tales of the Out & The Gone (2007), and Digging: The Afro American Soul of Music (2009).
Mari Evans, best known for her award-winning poetry, is also an educator, editor, playwright, and the author of children’s books and plays. Both her poetry and her juvenile fiction address the concerns of the African American community. A critically acclaimed anthology, African American women authors, Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, was published in 1984 providing autobiographical statements by women authors as well as critical commentary on their work. the winner of many awards, such as a Woodrow Wilson grant in 1968, Evans divides her time between teaching, writing, theater work, and community service. Books of poems and poetry include: Night Star (1981), Where is the Music (1968), A Dark and Splendid Mass (Harlem River Press, 1992), and I am a Black Woman (1970). Children’s books include: Dear Corrine, Tell Somebody! Love, Annie: A book about secrets (1999), Jim Flying High (1979), J.D. (1973), Singing Black: Alternative Nursery Rhymes for Children (1998), and Rap Stories (1974). Plays include: Eyes, a musical based on Their Eyes Were Watching God (1998), River of My Song (1977), Portrait of a Man (1979), and Boochie (1979).
Sonia Sanchez
, poet, activist, scholar, was the Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Temple University. She has taught as a professor at eight universities and has lectured at over 500 college campuses across the US, including Howard University. An advocate of introducing Black Studies courses in California, Sanchez was
the first to create and teach a course based on Black women and literature in the United States.
The 1960s marked the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of Sanchez as an influential poet, writer, playwright and activist.
Sanchez is best known for her poetry, including Love Poems, A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women, I’ve Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems, Homegirls and Handgrenades, Under a Soprano Sky, and many others. Her children’s books include It’s a New Day: Poems for Young Brothas and Sistuhs; The Adventures of Fat Head, Small Head, and Square Head; and A Sound Investment and Other Stories. Sanchez established herself as a playwright as well and has written several plays, including Black Cats Back and Uneasy Landings and I’m Black When I’m Singing.
Haki Madhubuti
, a leading poet and one of the architects of the Black Arts Movement, publisher, editor, and educator, has been a pivotal figure in the development of a strong Black literary tradition. 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. 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), 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 75 anthologies from 1997- 2010. His recent releases are YellowBlack: The First Twenty-One Years of a Poet’s Life, A Memoir (2006) and Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems 1966-2009 (2009). Madhubuti is currently completing a new book, Poet: Honoring Genius, poems about his mentor, Gwendolyn Brooks, which will be available Fall 2011.
Etheridge Knight Theatre is holding auditions for Amiri Baraka's Dutchman
Visit Janaury on our Event Calendar for more information.
