Founding editor of DrumVoices Revue to visit Cal State L.A. Oct. 25

Oct. 22, 2012 - PRLog -- 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 (http://www.siue.edu/ENGLISH/dvr/), 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.