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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING DR. HAKI R. MADHUBUTI ON THE FIFTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THIRD WORLD PRESS
WHEREAS, in 1967, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti, formerly known as Don L. Lee, founded Third World Press, an independent publisher focused on African-American thought and literature; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti has lived his life as an act of defiance through his poetry, which echoes his horn-playing music and fierce activism; and
WHEREAS, as stated in a recent Chicago Reader article, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti has been “one of the great voices of Black poetry to emerge in the 20th century and one of the most significant advocates and theorists of Black self-determination since Malcolm X.;” and
WHEREAS, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti’s art urges men, women and children in impoverished, segregated neighborhoods who have been left behind by society to create African-American institutions to serve and nourish African-American communities; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti kept his mother, a woman who had suffered addiction and suffered a brutal death, in his heart and in his art work; and
WHEREAS, this experience and many other challenges were channeled through Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti’s poetry; and
WHEREAS, his activism emerged in West Englewood and Chatham in Chicago and spread throughout the world through artists like Ta-Nehisi Coates and rappers and musicians from Nicole Mitchell to the latest kid whose poetry echoes the need for strong and radical change; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti’s poetry and his activism continue to this day through his work in Betty Shabazz schools, Englewood schools and his power as it spreads throughout the world; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the President and the Cook County Board of Commissioners, on behalf of the residents of Cook County, honor Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti on the fifty-first anniversary of Third World Press and praise his essential contribution to the cultural viability of Cook County. end