 | Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press Subjects: Randall Dudley 1914–; American literature -- African American authors -- Publishing -- Michigan -- Detroit; Literature publishing -- Michigan -- Detroit -- History -- 20th Century; Publishers and publishing -- United States -- Biography; African America; Dudley Randall, one of the great success stories of American small-press history, was also Poet Laureate of Detroit, a civil-rights activist, and a force in the Black Arts Movement. Melba Joyce Boyd was an editor at Broadside, was Randall's friend and colleague for twenty-eight years, and became his authorized biographer. Her book is an account of the interconnections between urban and labor politics in Detroit and the broader struggles of black America before and during the Civil Rights era. Melba Joyce Boyd is professor of Africana studies at Wayne State University and adjunct professor at the Center for Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of six books of poetry, including The Province of Literary Cats, co-editor of Abandoned Automobile: Detroit City Poetry 2001, author of Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper, 1825-1911, and the producer and director of the documentary film, The Black Unicorn: Dudley Randall and Broadside Press. |
