Dudley Randall Critical Essay | Critical Essay by D. H. Melhem

Critical Essay by D. H. Melhem

SOURCE: “Dudley Randall: The Poet as Humanist,” in Heroism in the New Black Poetry: Introductions and Interviews, The University Press of Kentucky, 1990, pp. 41-60.

In the following essay, Melhem discusses Randall's poetry and involvement with Broadside Press. A slightly different version of this essay appeared in Black American Literature Forum in 1983 under the title “Dudley Randall: A Humanist View.”

“I never thought of myself as a leader,” says Dudley Randall in his soft, vibrant voice. Yet the historical impact of Broadside Press, begun in Detroit in 1965 “without capital, from the twelve dollars I took out of my paycheck to pay for the first Broadside,” attests to the modesty of his statement. Despite Randall's “silence” between 1976 and 1980, when the Press foundered as a result of overgenerous publishing commitments and subsequent debt; despite his depression during those years (he wrote no poetry until April of 1980), Broadside...
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