Note to editors and news directors: To arrange interviews with
Redmond, contact CSULA Professor Lauri Ramey at (323) 343-4165.
____
Founding editor of DrumVoices Revue
SIU’s
literary publication features its 20th anniversary edition
Los Angeles, CA
– Eugene B. Redmond—an emeritus professor of English and former
chair of the Creative Writing Committee at Southern Illinois
University-Edwardsville (SIU)—will present and discuss the 20th
commemorative issue of
DrumVoices Revue: A Confluence of Literary, Cultural and Vision Arts,
at Cal State L.A. Thursday, October 25.
The free lecture, entitled “DrumVoices: A Critical
Conversation and Reading with Eugene B. Redmond,” will be presented
at 5-6:30 p.m. in the Music Hall on the CSULA campus. A reception and
book signing to follow the presentation.
Redmond is the founding editor of DrumVoices Revue, which
was first launched in fall 1991/winter 1992. It has been a publication
of SIU in collaboration with the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club of East
St. Louis, Illinois.
Redmond was named Poet Laureate of East Saint Louis (IL) in 1976, the
same year Doubleday published his best-selling book,
Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical Commentary.
From 1970-85, Redmond was professor of English and poet-in-residence in
ethnic studies at CSU Sacramento (CSUS) where he won several honors,
including an Outstanding Faculty Research Award.
Before he began his 15-year stint at CSUS, he spent two years as a
teacher-counselor and poet-in-residence at SIU’s Experiment in Higher
Education (EHE) in East St. Louis. At EHE, he taught with Henry Dumas,
Joyce Ladner, Oliver Jackson, and Katherine Dunham.
Currently in the middle of a multi-year epic poem about Dunham, Redmond
has authored or edited more than 25 volumes of poetry, collections of
diverse writings, and plays for stage and TV. In his capacity as Dumas’
literary executor, he has co-edited several collections of the late
writer’s works.
Redmond’s awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Creative
Writing Fellowship, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Pan-African
Movement USA, a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, a Pushcart
Prize: Best of the Small Presses, a Tribute to an Elder Honor from the
African Poetry Theater of NYC, an American Book Award (ABA) for The
Eye in the Ceiling: Selected Poems (1993), and a second ABA for
Lifetime Achievement (2012). He also received writing fellowships from
the Art Councils of California, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and West
Virginia.
Along with numerous collections of poetry, he also edited two
anthologies: Sides of the River: A Mini-Anthology of Black Writings
(1969) and Griefs of Joy: Anthology of Afro-American Poetry for
Students (1977), and released an LP recording/CD reading his poetry
to musical accompaniment: Blood Links and Sacred Places
(1973/2001). Redmond’s 50-year retrospective of writings, Arkansippi
Memwars: 1962-2012 (Poems, Prose & Chants), will be published
later this year by Third World Press.
For more about Redmond, go to
http://eugenebredmond.com/home/biography/.
This guest lecture is cosponsored by the CSULA Center for Contemporary
Poetry and Poetics, Department of English, Statement Magazine,
and College of Arts and Letters.
# # #
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the Honors College for high-achieving students.
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to visit Cal State L.A. Oct.
25
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