Literature / Business & brands
Naomi Long Madgett
1923–2020 · poet, publisher, teacher
Poet laureate of Detroit from 2001 and founder of Lotus Press (1972), which published generations of Black poets from Detroit.
- Born
Norfolk, Virginia- Died
West Bloomfield, Michigan
aged 97- Birth name
- Naomi Cornelia Long
- Also known as
- Godmother of African American poetry
- Detroit years
- 1946–2020
- Field
- Literature, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Madgett, a minister's daughter who grew up in New Jersey and St. Louis, moved to Detroit in 1946 after marrying and made the city her home for 74 years. She wrote for the Michigan Chronicle, earned a master's in education at Wayne State in 1955 and, as a Detroit Public Schools teacher, taught the system's first course in Black literature, mostly at Northwestern High School. In 1972 she founded Lotus Press, which grew into one of the longest-lived Black-owned poetry publishers in the country and published poets such as Toi Derricotte and Dolores Kendrick; it merged with Broadside Press in 2015. Mayor Dennis Archer named her Detroit's poet laureate in 2001, and in 2012 she received the Kresge Eminent Artist Award. She died at 97 and is buried in Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery.
Highlights
- Founded Lotus Press in Detroit (1972); merged into Broadside Lotus Press in 2015
- Detroit Poet Laureate from 2001
- Kresge Eminent Artist Award (2012)
- Taught Detroit's first Black literature course, mostly at Northwestern High School
- Poems include Midway and the collection Star by Star
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1955–1968
Northwestern High School
Where she spent most of her 12 years teaching the Detroit schools' first Black literature course.
Studied here · 1950s–1955
Wayne State University
She earned her master's in education here in 1955.
Founded · 1972–2015
Broadside Lotus Press (Lotus Press)
Her Detroit poetry press, a nonprofit from 1980, merged with Broadside Press in 2015.
Buried here · 2020
Elmwood Cemetery
Detroit's historic cemetery, her burial place according to Wikidata.