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Poet Haki Madhubuti headed in new direction

            Acclaimed educator, publisher reflects on transition to DePaul


By Lauren R. Harrison | Tribune reporter

On a wooden podium inside DePaul University's Cortelyou Commons, the man's voice rose a few decibels. “Introduce your children to the cultures of the world through …”

“Art!” The crowd of more than 100 yelled.

“Keep them curious and political and creative with …”

“Art!”

Some might mistake this call-and-response oration for a sermon. But the man with a gray mustache, dressed in a gray pinstripe suit with a yellow vest and red-and-cream striped tie, isn't a preacher. He is Haki Madhubuti, 68-year-old poet, publisher, educator and seminal figure of the Black Arts Movement. And the occasion Wednesday evening, featuring poet, educator and activist Nikki Giovanni, was Madhubuti's introduction to DePaul University as its Ida B. Wells-Barnett professor for the 2010-2011 academic year.

“I'm totally thrilled to be here with you today, celebrating with my old and dear friend Haki,” Giovanni said to the audience, which included the grandsons of journalist and civil rights activist Wells-Barnett, Benjamin Duster, 83, and Donald Duster, 78. “Everything is an opportunity. And this is an opportunity for Haki. It's an opportunity for DePaul. It's an opportunity for everybody to grow.”

While at DePaul, Madhubuti plans to hold faculty and public lectures on Wells-Barnett's legacy, and teach two courses on art and race and the Black Arts Movement to the present.

The celebratory scene Wednesday was a world away from the controversy surrounding Madhubuti's retirement from Chicago State University this summer after 26 years of teaching. During that time, he recruited the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks and established Chicago State's Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, annual Gwendolyn Brooks writing conference, master of fine arts in creative writing program and International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent.

In a recent interview at Third World Press — one of the oldest independent black-owned presses, founded in 1967 by Madhubuti — he shook his head at the memory of feeling “forced out” of Chicago State.

“This all started when the board of trustees decided to politicize the selection of the new president,” Madhubuti says, seated near a wall that includes an oil painting of the poet when he was known as Don L. Lee, complete with Afro and Ankh jewelry.

In an open letter last June, Madhubuti criticized the selection process that led to Chicago State tapping current President Wayne Watson. Consequently, Madhubuti said, Watson demanded that he teach additional courses during the middle of the school year — a time when he taught one course and helmed the annual writers conference, as well as led the Brooks Center.

“So that means that essentially, I can't write,” Madhubuti said. “And I'm not going to take it. Not at my age and not what I've contributed to the university, so I just totally retired.”

In an e-mailed statement, Watson declined to comment on specific questions about his interactions with Madhubuti. “Chicago State University has great respect for the work of Dr. Haki Madhubuti,” he said. “We appreciate his contributions … during his 26 years at our institution. His decision to retire … was a personal one. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Though he felt miserable at the time of the Chicago State tussle, in retrospect, Madhubuti says, “it was supposed to happen, because at this time in my life, I need to be someplace where people appreciate me.”

Chuck Suchar, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at DePaul, explained why a search committee chose Madhubuti: “We found someone that was reflective of the contributions that Ida B. Wells made during her lifetime.” Suchar added that Madhubuti “has been extremely sensitive to the issues that reflect the African-American community and larger community as well.”

Jacqueline Bryant, former chair of the English department at Chicago State, who retired last month, agreed. “When you sit back and you think about the lives that he has made an impact on, it's just amazing.”

Madhubuti has published more than 28 books of his poetry and nonfiction (including best-selling “Don't Cry, Scream” and “Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous? Afrikan American Families in Transition: Essays in Discovery, Solution, and Hope”); published such literary giants as Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, his “cultural mother” Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as emerging black writers; and co-founded four South Side charter schools serving 1,000 children with wife Carol D. Lee, an education and social policy professor at Northwestern University. His accomplishments can be traced to his impoverished upbringing — born in Little Rock, Ark., and raised in Detroit — by a mother involved in sex trade who was “a reader.” She asked him to check out “Black Boy” from a Detroit library when he was 13 years old.

“This was the first time in my life that I was not reading literature that was an insult to my own personhood. Sentences in the paragraphs, chapters, about me, that essentially gave me a different type of insight into my own history, which is critical,” he said. “So I read ‘Black Boy' in less than 24 hours … went back to the library and checked out everything Richard Wright had published.”

He says he took this thirst for reading with him to the Army, where he served from 1960 to 1963, reading nearly one book a day and writing a 250-word essay on each book. “That was my entry into writing,” Madhubuti says. “Because I was trying to save myself.”

He continues his self-discipline today.

A strict vegan, Madhubuti clocks nearly 100 miles a week cycling and rises at 4 a.m. to write for three hours when working on a project.

“He's like a ninja, because he really is one of the, if not most, disciplined person that I know,” said Kevin Coval, poet and artistic director of Louder Than A Bomb youth poetry festival, whom Madhubuti mentors.

Perhaps some of that discipline will rub off on students at DePaul.

“I think if America has any great promise, it's because of young people. So, that's what I see happening with my life now — that I use these whatever years I have left to continue to work with young people,” Madhubuti said, adding that he's “not going to disappoint” — and doesn't want others to disappoint.

“Because I'll be on them like black on coal and white on rice, all right?” He chuckles.

Madhubuti will be leading public lectures in the fall, winter and spring. They are free and open to the public. Check dates on DePaul's African and Black Diaspora's Web site: las.depaul.edu/abds/

lharrison2@tribune.com

Sun-Times:Daley defends takeover of Harold Washington Cultural Center

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Without a City Colleges purchase made possible by a $1.8 million city subsidy, Bronzeville’s Harold Washington Cultural Center would become another “vacant building,” Mayor Daley warned Thursday, defending the hostile takeover he proposed to save an auditorium built primarily with city funds.

“We want to keep the Harold Washington Cultural Center alive. We want to keep it alive with young people, keep it alive with artists and rebuild the 47th Street dream of … wonderful music — not for Chicago, but for the world,” Daley said of the 1,000-seat auditorium at 47th and King Drive.

“It’s in foreclosure. We want to make sure that, when you drive by there and you look at that building, it’s not gonna be vacant. It’s gonna be used by young people. It’s gonna be used by community people. We want to keep that alive, just like the dedication [Harold Washington] gave to the people of Chicago. That should not be a vacant building.”

Tobacco Road, the not-for-profit organization that runs the Harold Washington Cultural Center, is directed by the daughter of former Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd).

Tillman has branded the proposed City Colleges takeover “totally illegal … political harassment” and vowed to fight the lame-duck mayor “tooth-and-nail.”

On Thursday, Daley fought back.

He argued that Tobacco Road has had every opportunity to make a go of it and ended up in default of a grant agreement that provided $7.7 million in city funds used to build the facility.

Armed with an independent audit, the Daley administration has accused Tobacco Road of falling more than 200 events-a-year short of its booking obligations.

“It has nothing to do with Dorothy. The building is foreclosed and they have not fulfilled their responsibility. … I want that building to be alive with younger people. … That should be the center of attention. … City Colleges can do that,” he said.

“We think we can have more use of it through City Colleges. We have many, many programs. And with the Board of Education in there. We think we can do a much better job.”

The latest in a string of controversies surrounding the theater that Tillman hoped would anchor a “Chicago Blues District” along 47th Street was triggered by a $1.3 million foreclosure lawsuit filed last year by the now-shuttered ShoreBank.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that Daley wants to give the City Colleges $1.8 million in tax-increment-financing funds to purchase the center’s foreclosed mortgage and turn the 1,000-seat auditorium into an education and performing arts center.

City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman has acknowledged that she doesn’t have a “full-blown plan” for the center. But, she talked about providing “credit courses” in performing arts and about operating the center “as you would any other college.”

“We could share it with area high schools and local performing artists. We could build out a student-run jazz and blues-themed restaurant and create a museum celebrating the rich history of Bronzeville. We’re looking at a lot of different options with academic and community focus,” she said this week.

Civic Federation President Laurence Msall has questioned whether City Colleges have the “resources to operate” the troubled facility. Msall noted that Hyman is consolidating nursing and other programs to ease an “operating deficit.”

 

Have a lovely day!

Leilawww.bronzevillemetropolis.com

Famed civil rights photographer doubled as FBI informant

Ernest C. Withers, a revered civil rights photographer who captured iconic images of Martin Luther King Jr. on the night King was shot in Memphis, actually played a different role the day before: FBI informant.

                                Children huddle in entrance in Tent City

Children huddle in the entrance of a tent during 1960 in Tent City near Somerville, Tenn. Tent City was home to black sharecroppers who were kicked-offwhite-owned lands in 1960 because blacks were registering to vote. Pipe at top is from a stove in the tent.

                              Tent City, near Somerville, Tenn., was home

Tent City, near Somerville, Tenn., was home for black sharecroppers who were kicked off white-owned land in 1960 because they registered to vote.

Link To Story -Famed civil rights photographer doubled as FBI informant

The Schott Report

Hello Folks!!!


This is a powerful piece. Please read and advise the body on what approach you think BPNI needs to go. At our last meeting (8/28/2010), we decide to form a Consortium with several of the PN applicants from the south side. BPNI needs something to sell to the PN applicants as to WHY they need to collaborate with US. We need an actual something that BPNI DOES!!! And BPNI needs money to DO IT. Please give this document and BPNI as a leader of a Consortium real thought. We need to come up with a system, an endeavor, a Promise Neighborhood way of thinking for Chicago. Think folks, think then do.


Peace,


Roberta ;robertastrotter@comcast.net

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  Presented by:www.blackboysreport.org

Chicago 4th Ward "Politics" Shuts Down Legendary Hyde Park Jazz Society at Room 43 and Other New 43rd St Business?

by Mark S. Allen on Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 10:53am

Chicago 4th Ward "Politics" Shuts Down Legendary Hyde Park Jazz Society at Room 43??
Where is Andy Shaw and Better Government??? IS THIS HOW GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK??

Norman Bolden and Room 43 HAD the proper Building Commission Licence to operate and offer local entertainment at Room 43 and a new Indoor/Outdoor Restaurant on 43rd, BUT all those final Zoning approvals negatively changed when he announced plans to be a 4th Ward Aldermanic candidate? Come On Alderman Preckwinkle, Mayor Daley, Do NOT preside over this type of process and stop people from working or new businesses from opening !!!!



Dear Jazz Friends,

This is such a painful email to write. Because of a City order, our performances in ROOM 43 are cancelled on SUNDAY, 9/5 AND 9/12. Furthermore, unless our licensing problems are settled by October 17th, we will no longer be able to offer you jazz in the beautiful ROOM 43.


This is a huge blow to us and, frankly, to the neighborhood that brought in so many people--black, white, Asian, Hispanic--to listen to the music they love. Sadly, we are still fighting the battle with City Hall. The "we" is the Hyde Park Jazz Society, founded by Jim Wagner, and Norman Bolden, owner of ROOM 43, who took us in 14 months ago when we were thrown out of the Checkerboard.

Norman applied for a Public Place of Amusement license (PPA) so that we could have our music. He received approval from the Building Commission, leaving only the stamp from the Zoning Department remaining. The PPA should be issued if these two departments sign off.


I will spare you the painful details, but the bottom line is that the Zoning Department has chosen not to respond in a timely manner. The Hyde Park Jazz Society has now had to spend what is left of our resources on a Special Events License and Insurance, both of which expire on October 17th.


Without a PPA, the Sunday night Jazz Series becomes homeless. All that we ask is that the Zoning Department give Norman Bolden an administrative adjustment and sign off on his parking. Those of you have been with us know how available and simple parking is for Room 43- much better than in Hyde Park. With the Zoning stamp, there should be no further excuses for the City to withhold the PPA.

It does strain credulity that an organization should be dealt with so poorly when it brings to the heart of the mid south side middle class people who pay their taxes and vote. We have been treated by some (definitely not all) City officials and departments indifferently at best; punitively, at worst.


We'll keep you posted. But please stick with us!


Judith

Malcolm X's "Who Taught You To Hate Yourself" Speech