This special evening features poet, author, editor and publisher of Third World Press, Dr. Haki Madhubuti, in celebration of his newest book, Taught By Women: Poems as Resistance Language. Dr. Madhubuti will read and be joined in conversation by Romi Crawford from the Art Institute of Chicago.

In these new and selected poems, prolific artist and activist Haki Madhubuti pays homage to the many women who have influenced him and contributed to his unique worldview, with warm verses and timeless reverence. Each poem is a vivid portraiture of the “magnificent energy” emanating from a rainbow of Black women. 

A founding member of the Black Arts Movement, Dr. Madhubuti writes experimental, free-verse, politically charged poetry. This is his first single-authored book of poetry since 2005. 

Haki Madhubuti, publisher, editor and educator, has been a pivotal figure in the development of a strong Black literary tradition. He has published more than 31 books of poetry, non-fiction, and essays. Dr. Madhubuti founded Third World Press, an independent publisher whose mission is  to provide quality literature that primarily focuses on issues, themes, and critique related to an African American public. 
Dr. Madhubuti earned his MFA from the University of Iowa. His distinguished teaching career includes faculty positions at Columbia College of Chicago, Cornell University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Howard University, Morgan State University, and the University of Iowa. He is the former University Distinguished Professor and a professor of English at Chicago State University where he founded and was director-emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center

Romi Crawford (Ph.D.) is a Professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her research and writing explore areas of race and ethnicity as these relate to American visual culture (including art, film, and photography). She is co-author of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). Additional publications include Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect (Green Lantern Press, 2021).

Haki Madhubuti: Taught By Women, Poems as Resistance Language