University Library hosts exhibition 'A Celebration of Broadside Press'

4:21 p.m., Jan. 12, 2016--In celebration of Black History Month, the University of Delaware Library will mount a four-case exhibition titled “A Celebration of Broadside Press” from Jan. 19 through March 26 on the first floor of the Morris Library.

After Motown, the most well-known black cultural exporter in Detroit, Michigan, was probably the Broadside Press. 

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University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

• June 6-9: Food and culture series
• Through June 30: 'Saving White Clay Creek'
• July 22: WWE Heatwave Tour
• Through Sept. 16: Women of color in academia

In 1965, poet/librarian Dudley Randall began the press as a vehicle to publish his own work. However, Broadside Press would go on to publish the most important African American poets of the period – Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, and others.

In its early years the Broadside Press issued inexpensive broadsides and pamphlets, often in response to political events, such as the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the arrest and trial of Angela Davis. 

Randall’s use of these centuries-old formats for the dissemination of African American poetry was innovative. The Broadside Press also issued numerous poetry collections.

Broadside Press’s most active years (1965-75) coincide with the rise of the Black Arts Movement, which forged a distinctive literary and cultural image for African Americans. Randall intended for the Broadside Press to support this burgeoning creative activity, which accompanied the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. 

Many of the poets associated with Broadside Press were leaders and shapers of the Black Arts Movement, and some were also important political thinker ad activists. 

Broadside Press sits at the center of any historical consideration of 20th-century African American poetry. Randall sold the Broadside Press in 1976, and it is still in existence.

The exhibition will include broadsides from the Broadside Press, as well as books of poetry by the poets mentioned above, along with others. Another section will present books about Broadside Press and the Black Arts Movement. 

An online version of the exhibition will be available. 

The exhibition is curated by Curtis Small, assistant librarian and coordinator, Public Services, Special Collections Department.