In celebration of Black History Month and the centennial anniversary of Dudley Randall’s birth, I have been invited to share with you some of Randall’s poetry and history.
Dudley Randall is equally respected for his roles as poet and as the founder of Broadside Press.
At a time in U.S. history when few mainstream presses would publish the work of African American poets, Broadside made the poetry of seminal African American authors such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez available to readers throughout the world.
Broadside Press has continued this work for 49 years now, just as it has continued to promote Randall’s vision of the written word as a living art form intimately connected to community and to self-determination.
Below is “A Different Image,” one of Dudley Randall’s signature poems. In it he asks us to re-image and, thus, re-imagine these connections.
I look forward to sharing more of Randall’s work and legacy with you in the coming weeks.
Rosemary Weatherston
Director, Dudley Randall Center for Print Culture
“A Different Image”
The age
requires this task:
create
a different image;
re-animate
the mask.
Shatter the icons of slavery and fear.
Replace
the leer
of the minstrel’s burnt-cork face
with a proud, serene
and classic bronze of Benin.