Leaving Legacy with Joanne Gabbin: English Professor & Furious Flower Poetry Center {Ep 42}

Listen to an awe inspiring and uplifting chat with Joanne Gabbin, the first black professor in the English Department at JMU with a building on campus recently named after her. Hear her rich stories that lead her to establish the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry and the changes she’s seen in her 36 years at James Madison University. Listen to the degree options available to her in the early 1960s and how her student path in journalism had lead to her first job. Hear the story about the JMU Honors program she directed that grew to almost 600 students and the incredible story of a student who said she ‘kicked him out of the honors program’. Hear her thoughts and wisdom on what makes a good writer and how she structures her Life Writing Class. Find out what influenced her to become a literary activist, what her message is and what she believes it teaches us. Discover why she wrote a book on Sterling A. Brown, a highly influential professor at Howard University from 1929-1969 and the “curious thing” he said to her when she handed him the book. Hear more about the famous poets she’s worked with on programs and events including Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison and Gwendolyn Brooks to name a few.  Find out the inspiration behind the naming of the Furious Flower Poetry Center; this year’s $1000 Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers; the upcoming Collegiate Summit and more! Most definitely not short of stories this episode is filled with oodles of inspiration for you. Enjoy! 

Facebook: Furious Flower Poetry Center

Instagram: @furiousflowerpoetrycenterjmu

Twitter: @FuriousFlowerPC

Cardinal House

500 Cardinal

Harrisonburg, VA 22807

540.568.883

furiousflower@jmu.edu

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