Haki Madhubuti is a best-selling poet, author, publisher, and educator, and is widely regarded as one of the architects of the Black Arts Movement and is founder and publisher of Chicago's Third World Press.
Madhubuti has published more than 37 books, four albums/CDs with music, and his poetry and essays have been
selected for more than 100 anthologies. His first four Black Arts poetry books, Think Black (1967), Black Pride, (with an
introduction by Dudley Randall (1968), Don’t Cry, Scream! with an introduction by Gwendolyn Brooks (1969), and We Walk the Way of the New World (1970), sold over 140,000 copies making him one of the best-selling poets in the world.
His book, Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous? The African American Family in Transition (1991) was a national bestseller of over 100,000 copies. His poetry has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he has won the American Book Award, Illinois Arts Council Award, Studs
Terkel Humanities Service Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Prize in poetry for his book, Liberation Narratives. His latest book, Taught By Women: Poems As Resistance Language, New and Selected (2020), pays homage to women who influenced him.
At the age of fourteen, he read Richard Wright's Black Boy which redirected his young life. Between 1960/63 Madhubuti (then Don L. Lee), served honorably in the United States Army. From 1962 to 1967 and beyond, as a college student, Black poet and political activist he was initiated into Black consciousness by the work and example of Malcolm X, and was personally mentored by Margaret & Charlie Burroughs, Dudley Randall, Hoyt W. Fuller, Barbara Ann Sizemore and the Pulitzer prize-winning poet who was to become his cultural mother, Gwendolyn Brooks.
In 1967, Madhubuti founded Third World Press, the oldest continuously publishing Black-owned book publisher in the United States. In 2015, the publishing house expanded its mission as Third World Press Foundation. The Institute of
Positive Education, and Betty Shabazz International Charter Schools which he co-founded, operates three schools in Chicago. Among his many awards he received the "Literary Legacy Award" from the National Black Writer's Conference for creating and supporting Black literature and for building Black literary institutions (2006). He was named by Ebony magazine twice as one of the "150 Most Influential Blacks in America" in the field of literature, Chicago magazine named
him as a "2007 Chicagoan of the Year" and he received the President's Pacesetters Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education in 2010. In 2015 The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame presented Madhubuti with The Fuller
Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2022 the National Association of Black Social Workers presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Madhubuti earned his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has taught at Columbia College of Chicago, Cornell University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Howard University, Morgan State University, University of Iowa, DePaul University, and Chicago State University, where he founded and directed the Gwendolyn
Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing which initiated Black Writers’ Conferences for over 20 years that brought every major Black writer in the nation to CSU. He co-founded the first MFA in Creative Writing program at a
predominately Black University and co-founded the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, both at CSU.
Madhubuti received his 5th Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Knox College in May 2022 and was named
University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Chicago State University in May of 2022. He was a recipient of the Pegasus Lifetime Achievement Award from the Poetry Foundation in October of 2022. He has given poetry readings and literary, poetry, cultural and political workshops in thousands of community & cultural centers, libraries, bookstores, colleges, and universities on four continents (multiple nations) and in over 38 states in the U.S.
Third World Press, the oldest independent continuous Black book publishing company in the world will celebrate its 56th Anniversary in October of 2023.
Publications:
Don’t Cry, Scream (1969)
GroundWork: New and Selected Poems (1996)
Madhubuti has published more than 37 books, four albums/CDs with music, and his poetry and essays have been
selected for more than 100 anthologies. His first four Black Arts poetry books, Think Black (1967), Black Pride, (with an
introduction by Dudley Randall (1968), Don’t Cry, Scream! with an introduction by Gwendolyn Brooks (1969), and We Walk the Way of the New World (1970), sold over 140,000 copies making him one of the best-selling poets in the world.
His book, Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous? The African American Family in Transition (1991) was a national bestseller of over 100,000 copies. His poetry has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he has won the American Book Award, Illinois Arts Council Award, Studs
Terkel Humanities Service Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Prize in poetry for his book, Liberation Narratives. His latest book, Taught By Women: Poems As Resistance Language, New and Selected (2020), pays homage to women who influenced him.
At the age of fourteen, he read Richard Wright's Black Boy which redirected his young life. Between 1960/63 Madhubuti (then Don L. Lee), served honorably in the United States Army. From 1962 to 1967 and beyond, as a college student, Black poet and political activist he was initiated into Black consciousness by the work and example of Malcolm X, and was personally mentored by Margaret & Charlie Burroughs, Dudley Randall, Hoyt W. Fuller, Barbara Ann Sizemore and the Pulitzer prize-winning poet who was to become his cultural mother, Gwendolyn Brooks.
In 1967, Madhubuti founded Third World Press, the oldest continuously publishing Black-owned book publisher in the United States. In 2015, the publishing house expanded its mission as Third World Press Foundation. The Institute of
Positive Education, and Betty Shabazz International Charter Schools which he co-founded, operates three schools in Chicago. Among his many awards he received the "Literary Legacy Award" from the National Black Writer's Conference for creating and supporting Black literature and for building Black literary institutions (2006). He was named by Ebony magazine twice as one of the "150 Most Influential Blacks in America" in the field of literature, Chicago magazine named
him as a "2007 Chicagoan of the Year" and he received the President's Pacesetters Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education in 2010. In 2015 The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame presented Madhubuti with The Fuller
Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2022 the National Association of Black Social Workers presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Madhubuti earned his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has taught at Columbia College of Chicago, Cornell University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Howard University, Morgan State University, University of Iowa, DePaul University, and Chicago State University, where he founded and directed the Gwendolyn
Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing which initiated Black Writers’ Conferences for over 20 years that brought every major Black writer in the nation to CSU. He co-founded the first MFA in Creative Writing program at a
predominately Black University and co-founded the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, both at CSU.
Madhubuti received his 5th Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Knox College in May 2022 and was named
University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Chicago State University in May of 2022. He was a recipient of the Pegasus Lifetime Achievement Award from the Poetry Foundation in October of 2022. He has given poetry readings and literary, poetry, cultural and political workshops in thousands of community & cultural centers, libraries, bookstores, colleges, and universities on four continents (multiple nations) and in over 38 states in the U.S.
Third World Press, the oldest independent continuous Black book publishing company in the world will celebrate its 56th Anniversary in October of 2023.
Publications:
Don’t Cry, Scream (1969)
GroundWork: New and Selected Poems (1996)