DePaul University has tapped celebrated poet, essayist and editor Haki Madhubuti to fill its Ida B. Wells-Barnett Professorship. Madhubuti joins DePaul’s faculty for the 2010-11 academic year as part of the African and Black Diaspora Studies program, where he will teach classes and lead faculty and public lectures.  The distinguished professorship is named for noted civil rights activist and journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

Madhubuti introduced himself to the university community and guests with a spirited lecture on the unfortunate realities of race in America and a passionate reading of the poem “Art” from his book “Liberation Narratives.” He spoke at a welcoming celebration hosted by his longtime friend and renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, a distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech at DePaul Sept. 15.

In his remarks, Madhubuti said that “racism is not only alive and well in the United States, but it is a growth industry. We are not in a post-racial society in the wake of the electing Barack Obama president of the United States. Race remains our great central story. It all comes down to race in some fundamental way.”

Educator and social commentator Michael Eric Dyson and Chicago journalist Laura Washington previously held the post.

Madhubuti, who was born Donald L. Lee, earned recognition as a literary force and spirited poet during the turbulent 1960s when he was encouraged by renowned poet Gwendolyn Brooks to publish a collection of his poetry. The result was a work titled “Think Black,” which was entirely self-published and distributed by Madhubuti. When the book sold hundreds of copies in a week, Madhubuti and three partners established Third World Press in the basement of a Chicago apartment with $400 and a mimeograph machine.

Madhubuti , who has authored more than 20 books of essays and poetry, writes experimental, free-verse, politically charged poetry with a staccato rhythm. During his career, Madhubuti’s poetry has shifted focus from the personal to the political. His latest book, “Liberation Narratives: Collected and New Poems (1966-2009),” is a collection of his poetry that spans his illustrious career and helps define and sustain a movement that added music and brash street language to traditional poetry.

Madhubuti earned his stripes in the civil rights movement working to help young African-American writers find their voices. He was a writer-in-residence at Cornell University and Howard University, where he became involved in Pan-Africanism. He also worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)—experiences that helped inform his activist poetry.

Before joining the faculty at DePaul, Madhubuti was a professor and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Chicago State University, where he also served as founder and director emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature.