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Video by Tony Smith

Madhubuti is a major contributor to the Black literary tradition, in particular through his early association with the Black Arts Movement beginning in the mid-60s, and which has had a lasting and major influence, even today. A proponent of independent Black institutions, Madhubuti is the founder, publisher, and chairman of the board of Third World Press (established in 1967), which today is the largest independent black-owned press in the United States.

Over the years, he has published 24 BOOKS (some under his former name, "Don L. Lee") and is one of the world's best-selling authors of poetry and non-fiction, with books in print in excess of 3 million. His Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous?: The African American Family in Transition(1990) has sold over 1,000,000 copies. His latest books are Claiming Earth: Race, Rage, Rape, Redemption (1994), GroundWork: New and Selected Poems 1966-1996(1996), and HeartLove: Wedding and Love Poems (1998).

Besides co-founding a publishing company, Madhubuti is the co-founder of the Institute of Positive EDUCATION/New Concept Development Center (established in 1969), and co-founder of "Betty Shabazz International Charter School" (established 1998) in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a founder and board member of the National Association of Black BOOK PUBLISHERS, a founder and chairman of the board of The International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, and founder and director of the National Black Writers Retreat. Prior to stepping down from his position, Madhubuti held the position of Distinguished University Professor, co-founder and director emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing PROGRAM at Chicago State University. Madhubuti's latest book, Yellow Black, is an autobiographical novel detailing the first 21 years of his life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haki_R._Madhubuti

Haki Madhubuti, was a mentor to Arthur Amaker and I on our first published book featuring Amiri Baraka, titled 'Sons of Lover's' an anthology of poems by men of color.