A Tribute to Detroit Poet Laureate Naomi Long Madgett

02/07/21 • 40 min

This podcast is a little different than our usual programs. Dr. Naomi Long Madgett, the Detroit Poet Laureate, had been on our interview “wish list” for some time. Last fall, we tried to interview her here on the podcast about her latest book, You Are My Joy and Pain. That did not work out, and sadly, a few weeks later, she passed away. Today, we’ll be paying tribute to Madgett’s career as a poet, publisher and Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2020. We’re talking with two people in the Detroit literary community about her work, her legacy and how they will remember her. Our featured guests today are:

Leisia Duskin, a graphic designer, artist and instructor who is a Board Member of Broadside Lotus Press and a longtime collaborator with Dr. Madgett
And M.L. Liebler, an internationally known Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer and also the Poet Laureate for St. Clair Shores, Michigan

Listeners who would like to know more about Dr. Naomi Long Madgett’s career can find biographies on broadsidelotuspress.org, at poets.org, and also a more recent version at this link: https://naomilongmadgett.wixsite.com/naomi-long-madgett/biography)

Biography M.L. Liebler: www.mlliebler.com

Biography of Leisia Duskin, Graphic Designer, Educator, and Writer
Leisia Duskin is an artist, graphic designer, and educator. A graduate of the College for Creative Studies, Ms. Duskin is a Special Instructor teaching graphic design, varied format and apparel printing in the Printing and Graphics Program at Cornelius Golightly Career and Technical Center, Detroit Public Schools Community District.

In 1983, she received a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts for her book of poems entitled Lights Out in Ten (edited by poet Stella Crews). Leisia Duskin’s poems have been published in the South End Newspaper (Wayne State University) and in the Broadside Press anthology, Hipology: Horizons in Poetry, edited by Ron Allen and Stella Crews, Detroit Perspectives: Crossroads and Turning Points (Great Lakes Books Series) 1991..

Ms. Duskin joined Dr. Madgett to support the writing efforts of others published by Lotus Press. Their teamwork led to a life-long friendship. Dr. Madgett commissioned Ms. Duskin to create two illustrations for her acclaimed book, Octavia - And Other Poems (1988), reprinted as Octavia - Beyond Guthrie (1992). Over the years, Leisia Duskin would win the Lotus Press Graphic Design Excellence Award in 2008 for outstanding book design, and inclusion in the Henry Ford College Faculty Graphic Design and Photography Exhibition in 2014, for the 2012 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award book cover design Three Birds Deep by poet Sheila Carter-Jones. Her most recent book layout and cover design was for the Naomi Long Madgett (NLM) Poetry Award is Blues Legacy by poet Jacquese Armstrong, 2019.

Ms. Duskin joined the Board of Directors of Lotus Press in 2000, and served as Board President from 2005 to 2015.

Leisia Duskin, a graphic designer, artist and instructor who is a Board Member of Broadside Lotus Press and a longtime collaborator with Dr. Madgett
And M.L. Liebler, an internationally known Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer and also the Poet Laureate for St. Clair Shores, Michigan

Biography M.L. Liebler: www.mlliebler.com

Ms. Duskin joined the Board of Directors of Lotus Press in 2000, and served as Board President from 2005 to 2015.

Previous Episode

D.A. Lockhart: Poems and Essays

Our guest is D.A. Lockhart. He is the author of seven books, including Devil in the Woods, The Gravel Lot That Was Montana , This City at the Crossroads, Big Medicine Comes to Erie, and an essay collection called Wënchikàneit Visions. D.A. Lockhart holds degrees from Trent University, Montana State University, and Indiana University. His work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2019, TriQuarterly, ARC Poetry Magazine, Grain, Belt, and The Malahat Review among others. He is also the publisher at Urban Farmhouse Press and poetry editor for The Windsor Review. He is a Turtle Clan member of the Lenape people, a registered member of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and currently resides at Waawiiyaatanong on the south shore of the Detroit River (also known as the border cities of Windsor ON and Detroit MI). This year, he has published two new books, Breaking Right (with Porcupine’s Quill) and Tùkhòne: Where the River Narrows and the Shores Bend (with Black Moss Press.)
http://blackmosspress.com/d-a-lockhart/
https://porcupinesquill.ca/bookinfo6.php?index=361

Next Episode

Catching Up with Christopher Paul Curtis

It has been twenty five years since Christopher Paul Curtis first earned a Newbery Honor as well as an Honor from the Coretta Scott King Book Awards for The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, his critically acclaimed debut novel which was subsequently adapted for a Hallmark TV movie. In 2000, he became the first African American man to win the Newbery Medal for his 1999 novel Bud, Not Buddy, which also received the Coretta Scott King Award. His books Bucking the Sarge (2004), Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money (2005), Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission (2007), Elijah of Buxton (2007) which also received a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award, The Mighty Miss Malone (2012), The Madman of Piney Woods (2014), and The Journey of Little Charlie (2018) which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. His books regularly appear on lists of the best children’s books of the year, and in 2013, The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – 1963 was named one of the New York Public Library’s 100 Great Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years. Born in Flint, Michigan, Mr. Curtis has resided in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, where in his free time, he enjoys reading, playing basketball, and collecting music.
https://nobodybutcurtis.com/