{"id":2083,"date":"2025-11-12T02:05:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:09:08","slug":"udms-new-black-box-theatre-hosts-its-first-poetry-reading-with-michigan-poet-laureate-dr-melba-joyce-boyd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/2025\/11\/12\/udms-new-black-box-theatre-hosts-its-first-poetry-reading-with-michigan-poet-laureate-dr-melba-joyce-boyd\/","title":{"rendered":"UDM\u2019s New Black Box Theatre Hosts Its First Poetry Reading with Michigan Poet Laureate Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, September 27th, the University of Detroit Mercy\u2019s newly opened Black Box Theatre hosted its first poetry reading with Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd.<\/p>\n

A writer and academic, Dr. Boyd is Michigan\u2019s third poet laureate and currently holds the position of Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University. She has authored a total of thirteen books in her career, and continues to be a strong voice in African American literature.<\/p>\n

Before Dr. Boyd\u2019s introduction, student writers Asha George and Allena Williams read original works that demonstrated the talent and skill of UDM\u2019s rising poets.<\/p>\n

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Allena Wiliams (\u201926) shares a selection of her poetry. photo: Jorge Reyna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To ease into her portion of the evening, Dr. Boyd spoke of two of the inspirations for many of her poems. The first was Dudley Randall, an African American writer who founded the Broadside Press publishing company where Dr. Boyd formerly worked as an assistant editor. The second was Frances. E.W. Harper, a poet and activist who advocated for women\u2019s rights and the abolition of slavery. She was one of the first African American women to publish a novel. With these two powerful figures to guide her motivation, Dr. Boyd\u2019s own poems reflect the same preservation of African American experiences and culture.<\/p>\n

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Books by Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd about two of her literary inspirations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first of Dr. Boyd\u2019s original works read that evening was \u201cThe Return of Violet Starfish,\u201d which is a tribute to her younger cousin who passed of breast cancer. Full of fragmented but detailed imagery and intentional cadence, Dr. Boyd\u2019s poem masterfully pieces together a story of grief, faith, and overcoming loss in only a few short stanzas.<\/p>\n

Dr. Boyd\u2019s writing has a musical tone that entrances readers and listeners, and her poetry can be described as the coupling of art and history, where one becomes inseparable from the other. The rhythmic quality of Dr. Boyd\u2019s poems are a result of her time as a jazz musician. Even now, several of her works are meant to be read with accompanying music. Although there was no singing in the Black Box Theatre for her poem \u201cRock Steady for Aretha Franklin,\u201d Dr. Boyd\u2019s natural lyricism and musical intuition provided the perfect spoken melody.<\/p>\n

In this ode, she writes, \u201cHer rhythm and blues are liberation anthems, bridges over troubled waters,\u201d and, \u201cBorn in Memphis, raised up in Detroit City, reaching Spanish Harlem, with spiritual reverberation scaling on nation\u2019s blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin (in 1969), for whom Dr. Boyd\u2019s second poem was written.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an African American writer, Dr. Boyd feels that preserving Black history is of the utmost importance at a time where, she says, \u201cculture and representation are under attack.\u201d In her Q&A session, she stressed that young aspiring writers and poets have a duty to build a sense of community that can\u2019t be easily broken.<\/p>\n

Just as her poems center around history, culture, and faith, Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd remains a steadfast advocate for the continuity of literature that inspires remembering the past to create a stronger future. In the final moments of the evening, she left us with this thought: poetry is more than reflection. It\u2019s an act of resistance, and it\u2019s the courage to be \u201cbodacious\u201d\u2014bold and outrageous\u2014in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd shares inspiring words in difficult times. photo: Jorge Reyna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This event served as a proud acknowledgement that the university\u2019s new Black Box Theatre is a vibrant space for many future shows of creativity and cultural exchange in Detroit.<\/p>\n

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Sam Abedi (she\/her) is a third-year Biology major with a minor in Literature and a concentration in Biological Research. She is passionate about exploring the unique intersection between science and creative writing. Outside the lab, she enjoys journaling and knitting sweaters. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Physiology.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Find out more storeis from the Department of English here: https:\/\/detroitmercyenglish.com\/2025\/10\/16\/udms-new-black-box-theatre-hosts-its-first-poetry-reading-with-michigan-poet-laureate-dr-melba-joyce-boyd\/<\/div>\n
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On Saturday, September 27th, the University of Detroit Mercy\u2019s newly opened Black Box Theatre hosted its first poetry reading with Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd. A writer and academic, Dr. Boyd is Michigan\u2019s third poet laureate and currently holds the position of Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":682,"featured_media":2086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/530\/2025\/11\/melbaboydreading_sideview1.png?fit=2048%2C1365&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/682"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2084,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/2084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/magis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}