The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry by Rambsy Howard;

Author:Rambsy, Howard;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Building a Brand: The Broadside Imprint

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Broadside Press functioned as the most influential publisher of African American poetry. Even without the resources and wide distribution capabilities of large, well-funded publishing institutions, Broadside Press symbolized the promise of black self-determination in publishing. But more than just a symbol, Broadside Press published the movement’s most notable figures and several lesser-known poets. Literary critic James Sullivan explains that “literature always appears under the name not only of an author, but also of a racially marked publishing institution whose mission always inflects the work.”10 Writers who published under the Broadside imprint became linked to a press whose mission was to produce inexpensive, creatively designed literary products that celebrated black culture. Under the leadership of its founder, Dudley Randall, Broadside Press secured a visible role in the circulation of African American poetry in general.

Several literary historians, including Melba Boyd, James Smethurst, James Sullivan, and Julius Thompson, have charted the history of Broadside Press and remarked on its significance as a publisher of black verse.11 Their writings further validate the important contributions that Randall and Broadside Press made to the promotion of African American poetry and the formation of a movement among a wide-ranging group of writers. On the one hand, Randall demonstrated a commitment to veteran poets. As James Smethurst notes, “The first wave of Broadside writers,” such as Robert Hayden, Melvin Tolson, Margaret Walker, and Gwendolyn Brooks, “were all veterans of the cultural and political milieu of the Popular Front in the Midwest.”12 Further, explains Smethurst, twelve of the press’s first eighteen broadsides were authored by writers born before 1918 (236). On the other hand, Broadside Press also demonstrated its commitment to “new” black poets. As Melba Boyd documents in her biography of Randall, leading poets Haki Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Etheridge Knight benefited greatly from the publishing opportunities made possible by Broadside Press. Overall, Broadside Press published more than two hundred poets and became one of the most respected and recognizable brands in the production of African American poetry.13

Thinking of Broadside Press as a brand name means considering how the placement of the company’s name or imprint on its products, such as books, broadsides, and tape recordings, gave those products added significance. A consideration of the Broadside brand also means recognizing how leading poets assisted in increasing the overall value and prominence of the press. The appearance of “Broadside Press” on volumes of poetry linked those publications and their authors to a network of African American writers and cultural practices, and consequently, the success of Broadside as a brand was the result of a convergence of writers, literary institutions, readers/consumers, and publishing practices. According to Randall, Broadside Press was “one of the institutions that black people are creating by trial and error and out of necessity in our reaching for self-determination and independence.”14 Indeed, during the Black Power era, an African American– owned press could accommodate the nationalist agenda of literary artists seeking to create and promote their own institutions.

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