Haki R. Madhubuti
Writer/scholar/poet
Haki R. Madhubuti (aka Don Luther Lee) was born Feb. 23, 1942, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He served in the U.S. Army for four years, then attended several colleges in Chicago and graduate school at the University of Iowa with an M.F.A., 1984.
He taught at various colleges and universities, and in 1984 became a faculty member at Chicago State University.
His work is characterized both by anger at social and economic injustice and by rejoicing in African-American culture. His first six volumes of poetry were published in the 1960s. The verse collection Don't Cry, Scream (1969) includes an introduction by poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
As poet, publisher, editor and educator, Haki R. Madhubuti serves as a pivotal figure in the development of a strong Black literary tradition, emerging from the era of the sixties and continuing to the present. Over the years, he has published 24 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.
He is a much sought-after poet and lecturer, and has convened workshops and served as guest/keynote speaker at thousands of colleges, universities, libraries and community centers in the U.S. and abroad.
A proponent of independent Black institutions, Haki Madhubuti is the founder, publisher, and chairman of the board of Third World Press, established in 1967; he is co-founder of the Institute of Positive Education/New Concept School (1969), and co-founder of Betty Shabazz International Charter School (1998) in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a founder and board member of the National Association of Black Book Publishers, a founder and chairman of the board of The International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, founder and director of the National Black Writers Retreat.
Haki R. Madhubuti is the Distinguished University Professor, founder and director emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Chicago State University.
Also See Haki.htm
Compiled by Gibbs
Staff
7.4.05
