Programs

PRIDE AND PROTEST: POETRY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

A "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Remembrance and Reconciliation" Presentation The symbiosis of social forces and art during the Civil Rights movement is evident in the poetry produced from 1955 through 1975. Jeffrey Lamar Coleman explores the impact of the social movement's upheaval on American writers and illuminates their artistic and political contributions to the struggle. The presentation pays special attention to poems written in response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as other key moments of the movement. The poems are placed in historical context through brief discussions of the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers, the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Malcolm X. Among the poets discussed are Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Lowell, and Sonia Sanchez.

Jeffrey Lamar Coleman is the author of Spirits Distilled: Poems (Red Hen Press, 2006) and Associate Professor of English at St. Mary's College of Maryland, specializing in multicultural/American literature. He has also worked as poetry editor for Hayden's Ferry Review and advertising copywriter for Young and Rubicam in New York. Dr. Coleman earned his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico, his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, and his B.A. in Communications from Winthrop University.