Naomi Long Madgett
Naomi Long Madgett (July 5, 1923 – November 4, 2020) was a notable African American poet, educator, and advocate for Black literature. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, she experienced a diverse educational landscape that shaped her understanding of African American history and culture, particularly after attending an African American high school in St. Louis. Madgett published her first poetry collection, *Songs to a Phantom Nightingale*, at the age of seventeen, marking the beginning of her influential writing career. She graduated from Virginia State College in 1945 and later moved to Detroit, where she became a public school teacher and the first to offer a course in Black literature.
Throughout her career, Madgett produced several acclaimed poetry collections, served as the editor for Lotus Press, and was named Detroit's poet laureate in 2001. Her work, characterized by its social consciousness and celebration of Black culture, resonated deeply within the African American community and beyond. Noteworthy accolades include the College Language Association Creative Achievement Award and the Eminent Artist Award from the Kresge Foundation. Her poetry continues to be recognized for its elegance and depth, reflecting the complexities of the African American experience. Madgett's legacy endures through her writings, which are preserved in various archives, and her contributions to the literary arts.
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Naomi Long Madgett
- Born: July 5, 1923
- Birthplace: Norfolk, Virginia
- Died: November 4, 2020
- Place of death: West Bloomfield Township, Michigan
Biography
Naomi Long Madgett was born on July 5, 1923, in Norfolk, Virginia. The daughter of a Baptist minister whose work took him and his family up and down the East Coast and to the Midwest, she often attended integrated but racist schools, most notably one in East Orange, New Jersey. In 1937, her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she happily attended an African American high school. Here, she finally was taught about the achievements of African Americans, which gave her an understanding of and resulting pride in Black people’s accomplishments throughout the history of the United States.
Her studies included the literature of both Black and White writers. Her favored reading choices varied from Aesop’s fables, to Romantic and Victorian English poets like John Keats and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to poems by African Americans. Her interest in literature, especially poetry, led to her own writing. Soon after she graduated from high school, she published her first book of poetry, Songs to a Phantom Nightingale, when she was seventeen years old.
Madgett attended college at Virginia State College, graduating in 1945 with a BA. Attending that Southern school exposed her to the Southern Black culture that she had forgotten after living for so long in the North. She reveals her newly discovered insights in some of her poetry, such as her poem “A Negro in New York.”
After college, she married and moved to Detroit, where she began working for the Michigan Chronicle. Her daughter, Jill, was born in 1947. Eventually she became a Detroit public school teacher, the first one to teach a Black literature course in the school system. In 1968, she taught creative writing and African American literature at Eastern Michigan University, remaining on staff until her retirement in 1984. In 1998 she was Artist in Residence at Western Michigan University.
Madgett produced several collections of poetry, including One and the Many (1956), Pink Ladies in the Afternoon (1972), Exits and Entrances (1978), Octavia, and Other Poems (1988), Connected Islands (2004), and You Are My Joy and Pain (2020). During the 1970s, she took charge of Lotus Press and helped make it a leading publisher of poetry by African Americans. She became senior editor of the Lotus Press Poetry Series of Michigan State University Press in 1995. For the next two decades, she remained at the head of the publisher and as editor until Lotus was merged with Broadside Press in 2015. Her poetry collections brought several honors, including the College Language Association Creative Achievement Award, Black Scholar magazine’s 1992 Award of Excellence, and her selection as poet laureate of Detroit beginning in 2001. In 2012, she received the prestigious Eminent Artist Award from the Kresge Foundation, based in Detroit. Her writings have been included in more than 180 anthologies and are archived along with her letters and manuscripts at the University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library.
Madgett’s poems have been described as elegant and insightful and have influenced Black writers throughout the United States. Her best-known poem, “Midway,” was widely read, recited, and set to music during the years of the civil rights movement. Her poetry, with its powerful social consciousness, communicates an appreciation for Black culture and celebrates the African American experience.
On November 4, 2020, Madgett died at her West Bloomfield, Michigan, home at the age of ninety-seven.
Bibliography
Green, Penelope. "Naomi Long Madgett, Champion of Black Poets, Is Dead at 97." The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/books/naomi-long-madgett-dead.html. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.
Monaghan, John. "Naomi Long Madgett, Educator and Detroit Poet Laureate, Dies at 97." Detroit Free Press, 7 Nov. 2020, www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/2020/11/07/naomi-long-madgett-educator-and-detroit-poet-laureate-dies-97/6193305002/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.
"Naomi Long Madgett." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/naomi-long-madgett. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.