Etheridge Knight
Encyclopedia
Etheridge Knight was an African-American poet
who became a notable poet in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison
. The book recalls in verse his eight-year-long sentence after Etheridge was arrested for robbery in 1960. A prose
version was published in Italian
as Voce negre dal carcere, and in English
as Black Voices from Prison (1970), which includes other prisoners' writings. He is considered one of the major poets of the Black Arts Movement
, which flourished from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s.
Knight was born to a poor family in rural Corinth, Mississippi
, but spent time growing up in Paducah, Kentucky. He was one of seven children. Knight decided to drop out at the age of 16 . At such a young age, he realized that without an education, his opportunities were limited. In his hometown, he could only find menial jobs such as shining shoes and spent much of his time at juke joints, pool halls, and underground poker games. This took an emotional toll on Knight. Desperate to relieve himself of the despair of reality, he slipped into drug addiction. In an attempt to find himself and a purpose in life, Knight decided to join the U.S. Army in 1947. Knight served as a medic in the Korean War
until he was discharged from service in 1951, after suffering from a shrapnel wound that caused him to fall deeper into his drug addiction. After his time in the Army he settled in Indianapolis, Indiana
, where he picked up the art of telling toasts, which are traditional, black, oral narrative poems acted out in a theatrical manner. During this time, he still maintained his addiction to heroin.
In 1960, Knight snatched an elderly woman’s purse in order to support his addiction, and was sentenced to serve a ten to twenty-five year term in the Indiana State Prison. Enraged by his lengthy prison sentence, which he believed to be unjust and racist in nature, Knight, during his first year of prison became hostile and belligerent in his ways. However, in the following years of incarceration, he turned to books such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X
and the poetry of Langston Hughes
. Inspired by them, he redirected his embitterment into the writing of poetry so as to liberate his soul. By drawing from his experience in toasting, Knight developed his verse into a transcribed-oral poetry. By 1963, Knight began identifying himself as a poet. He also started establishing contacts with significant figures in the African American literary community. These contacts included Gwendolyn Brooks
, who visited him in prison and critiqued his work. The poems he had written during his time in prison were so effective that Dudley Randall
, a poet and owner of Broadside Press, published Knight’s first volume of verse, which he called Poems from Prison
, and hailed Knight as one of the major poets of the Black Arts Movement
. The book’s publication coincided with his release from prison. Other poets such as Amiri Baraka
, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez
aided Knight in obtaining his parole in 1968.
Upon his release from prison in 1968, Knight married poet Sonia Sanchez. Over the next few years, he held the position of writer-in-residence at several universities, including two years, 1968 and 1969, spent at the University of Pittsburgh. While living in Pittsburgh with wife Sonia Sanchez and their family, Knight spent time as poetry editor for Motive magazine. As a result of his ongoing drug addiction, his marriage to Sonia Sanchez did not last long, and they were divorced in 1970 while still in Pittsburgh. He continued writing his third book, Belly Song and Other Poems, which was published in 1973. His third work incorporates new life experiences and attitudes about love and race, and Knight was praised for the work’s sincerity. Belly Song was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Knight’s time in Pennsylvania was very important to his career: his work during this period won him both a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1972 and a Guggenheim Fellowship
in 1974.
He married Mary McNally in 1972, and fathered her two children. They settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota
until they separated in 1977. He then resided in Memphis, Tennessee
where he received Methadone treatments. Knight rose from a life of poverty, crime, and drug addiction to become exactly what he expressed in his notebook in 1965: a voice that was heard and helped his people. Knight died in Indianapolis, Indiana, of lung cancer on March 10, 1991.
Knight continued to write throughout his post-prison life. Belly Song and Other Poems (1973) dealt with themes of racism and love. Knight believed the poet was a "meddler" or intermediary between the poem and the reader. He elaborated on this concept in his 1980 work Born of a Woman. The Essential Etheridge Knight (1986) is a compilation of Knight's work.
In 1990, he earned a bachelor's degree in American poetry and criminal justice from Martin Center University in Indianapolis. Knight taught at the University of Pittsburgh
, the University of Hartford
, and Lincoln University
, before he was forced to stop working due to illness. He also continued to be known as a charismatic poetry reader.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
who became a notable poet in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison
Poems from Prison
Poems from Prison is a debut book of poetry by African American poet Etheridge Knight, published in 1968. The book describes his eight-year imprisonment for robbery. It attracted the attention of such poets as Amiri Baraka, Don Lee, Gwendolyn Brooks, and his future wife Sonia Sanchez, who...
. The book recalls in verse his eight-year-long sentence after Etheridge was arrested for robbery in 1960. A prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
version was published in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
as Voce negre dal carcere, and in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as Black Voices from Prison (1970), which includes other prisoners' writings. He is considered one of the major poets of the Black Arts Movement
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...
, which flourished from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s.
Knight was born to a poor family in rural Corinth, Mississippi
Corinth, Mississippi
Corinth is a city in Alcorn County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,054 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Alcorn County. Its ZIP codes are 38834 and 38835.- History :...
, but spent time growing up in Paducah, Kentucky. He was one of seven children. Knight decided to drop out at the age of 16 . At such a young age, he realized that without an education, his opportunities were limited. In his hometown, he could only find menial jobs such as shining shoes and spent much of his time at juke joints, pool halls, and underground poker games. This took an emotional toll on Knight. Desperate to relieve himself of the despair of reality, he slipped into drug addiction. In an attempt to find himself and a purpose in life, Knight decided to join the U.S. Army in 1947. Knight served as a medic in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
until he was discharged from service in 1951, after suffering from a shrapnel wound that caused him to fall deeper into his drug addiction. After his time in the Army he settled in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, where he picked up the art of telling toasts, which are traditional, black, oral narrative poems acted out in a theatrical manner. During this time, he still maintained his addiction to heroin.
In 1960, Knight snatched an elderly woman’s purse in order to support his addiction, and was sentenced to serve a ten to twenty-five year term in the Indiana State Prison. Enraged by his lengthy prison sentence, which he believed to be unjust and racist in nature, Knight, during his first year of prison became hostile and belligerent in his ways. However, in the following years of incarceration, he turned to books such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination...
and the poetry of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
. Inspired by them, he redirected his embitterment into the writing of poetry so as to liberate his soul. By drawing from his experience in toasting, Knight developed his verse into a transcribed-oral poetry. By 1963, Knight began identifying himself as a poet. He also started establishing contacts with significant figures in the African American literary community. These contacts included Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.-Biography:...
, who visited him in prison and critiqued his work. The poems he had written during his time in prison were so effective that Dudley Randall
Dudley Randall
Dudley Randall was an African American poet and poetry publisher from Detroit, Michigan. He founded a publishing company called Broadside Press in 1965, which published many leading African American writers. Randall's most famous poem is "The Ballad of Birmingham", written during the 1960s, about...
, a poet and owner of Broadside Press, published Knight’s first volume of verse, which he called Poems from Prison
Poems from Prison
Poems from Prison is a debut book of poetry by African American poet Etheridge Knight, published in 1968. The book describes his eight-year imprisonment for robbery. It attracted the attention of such poets as Amiri Baraka, Don Lee, Gwendolyn Brooks, and his future wife Sonia Sanchez, who...
, and hailed Knight as one of the major poets of the Black Arts Movement
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...
. The book’s publication coincided with his release from prison. Other poets such as Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...
, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez is an African American poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement. She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as plays and children's books...
aided Knight in obtaining his parole in 1968.
Upon his release from prison in 1968, Knight married poet Sonia Sanchez. Over the next few years, he held the position of writer-in-residence at several universities, including two years, 1968 and 1969, spent at the University of Pittsburgh. While living in Pittsburgh with wife Sonia Sanchez and their family, Knight spent time as poetry editor for Motive magazine. As a result of his ongoing drug addiction, his marriage to Sonia Sanchez did not last long, and they were divorced in 1970 while still in Pittsburgh. He continued writing his third book, Belly Song and Other Poems, which was published in 1973. His third work incorporates new life experiences and attitudes about love and race, and Knight was praised for the work’s sincerity. Belly Song was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Knight’s time in Pennsylvania was very important to his career: his work during this period won him both a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1972 and a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1974.
He married Mary McNally in 1972, and fathered her two children. They settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
until they separated in 1977. He then resided in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
where he received Methadone treatments. Knight rose from a life of poverty, crime, and drug addiction to become exactly what he expressed in his notebook in 1965: a voice that was heard and helped his people. Knight died in Indianapolis, Indiana, of lung cancer on March 10, 1991.
Knight continued to write throughout his post-prison life. Belly Song and Other Poems (1973) dealt with themes of racism and love. Knight believed the poet was a "meddler" or intermediary between the poem and the reader. He elaborated on this concept in his 1980 work Born of a Woman. The Essential Etheridge Knight (1986) is a compilation of Knight's work.
In 1990, he earned a bachelor's degree in American poetry and criminal justice from Martin Center University in Indianapolis. Knight taught at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, the University of Hartford
University of Hartford
The University of Hartford is a private, independent, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in West Hartford, Connecticut. The degree programs at the University of Hartford hold the highest levels of accreditation available in the US, including the Engineering Accreditation Commission of...
, and Lincoln University
Lincoln University
Lincoln University or University of Lincoln or variations may refer to:in England*University of Lincolnin New Zealand*Lincoln University, New Zealandin the United States*Lincoln University...
, before he was forced to stop working due to illness. He also continued to be known as a charismatic poetry reader.
External links and Further Reading
- Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge: Etheridge Knight Small collection of poems.
- Guide to the Etheridge Knight Collection, Butler University
- Modern American Poetry: Etheridge Knight (1931-1991)
- http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Knight__Etheridge.html Etheridge Knight Biography
- Biography and Interview at the Worcester Writers' Project