Please join the Special Collections Research Center on Tuesday, February 9th from 4:00-5:00pm for the second event in our Winter 2021 Virtual After Hours Series. A zoom  link will be shared with registrants approximately 24 hours before the event.

February's open house features a selection of published work and archival material from the records of two Black-owned Detroit Presses held by the Special Collections Research Center. Dudley Randall established Broadside Press in 1965 with the goal of cultivating the work of African American writers. The Press’ first publication was a broadside of Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” in 1966 and over the following decades, Broadside published more than 200 poets and writers in broadsides, collections, anthologies, records, and videotapes. Naomi Long Madgett founded Lotus Press in 1972. It was initially intended as a way of publishing her fourth book of poetry, Pink Ladies in the Afternoon, but it soon developed into a long-term project to find, support, and publish a wide range poets and authors, including Toi Derricotte, May Miller, and Dudley Randall himself.