Etheridge Knight facts for kids

Etheridge Knight (born April 19, 1931 – died March 10, 1991) was an African-American poet. He became well-known in 1968 with his first book, Poems from Prison. This book shared his experiences in verse after he spent eight years in prison starting in 1960.

By the time he left prison, Knight had prepared another book. It included his own writings and poems from other people he met in prison. This second book was first published in Italy. It later came out in English in 1970 as Black Voices from Prison. These works made Knight a key poet of the Black Arts Movement. This movement was active from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. It was connected to the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X, and the Black Power Movement. Etheridge Knight and other artists in this movement wanted to create art that explored African-American culture and history.

Many people also see Knight as an important poet in the main American poetry tradition. Michael S. Collins called Knight "a mighty American poet" in his 2012 book. Poet Robert Bly even said Knight and Wallace Stevens were like "two poles of American poetry." Knight often said he was a "poet of the belly." This meant he wrote about the earth, the body, and deep feelings. He believed that "passion, heart and soul" were the true sources of poetry, not just ideas.

About Etheridge Knight

Knight was born on April 19, 1931, in rural Corinth, Mississippi. He was one of eight children. His family later moved to Paducah, Kentucky. There, his father worked on the Kentucky Dam. Etheridge often ran away from home during this time. So, he was sent back to Corinth to stay with an uncle in the summers.

Even though he was a very smart student, Knight left school at age 16. His first job was shining shoes in a small Kentucky town. Here, he started to notice the small details of language. He spent a lot of time in places like juke joints and pool halls. This further sparked his interest in how people used words. He also learned about "toasts." These were like oral poems that told a story. In 1947, Knight joined the army. He served as a medical technician in the Korean War until 1950. During his service, he was seriously injured.

In 1960, Knight and two friends were arrested. Knight was very angry about his prison sentence at first. He could barely remember what happened during his first few months. But he soon realized that anger was not helpful. He then focused on reading as much as he could. He also dedicated himself to writing poetry.

Over the next few years, Knight became more and more known for his poetry. He worked as a journalist for prison newspapers. In 1965, he began sending his poems to the Negro Digest. He also started connecting with important African-American writers. These included famous poets like Gwendolyn Brooks, Dudley Randall, Sonia Sanchez, and Haki Madhubuti. Many of them even visited him in prison.

The poems he wrote in prison were very powerful. Dudley Randall, a poet and owner of Broadside Press, published Knight’s first book. It was called Poems from Prison. Randall praised Knight as a major poet of the Black Arts Movement. The book came out just as Knight was released from prison in 1968.

After his release, Knight married poet Sonia Sanchez. For the next few years, he worked as a writer-in-residence at several universities. This included two years at the University of Pittsburgh in 1968 and 1969. While living in Pittsburgh, Knight also worked as a poetry editor for Motive magazine.

His marriage to Sanchez ended in 1970. He continued writing his third book, Belly Song and Other Poems, which was published in 1973. This book included new experiences and thoughts about love and race. People praised the book for its honesty. Belly Song was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His time in Pennsylvania was very important for his career. He received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1972. He also won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974.

He married Mary McAnally in 1972. They adopted two children. They lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, until they separated in 1977. He then lived in Memphis, Tennessee.

Knight kept writing throughout his life after prison. His book Born of a Woman (1980) explored the idea of a poet as a "meddler." This meant the poet acted as a link between the poem and the reader. The Essential Etheridge Knight (1986) was a collection of his best work.

In 1990, he earned a bachelor's degree. He studied American poetry and criminal justice at Martin Center University in Indianapolis. Knight taught at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Hartford, and Lincoln University. He had to stop working due to illness. He was also known for his powerful poetry readings. Etheridge Knight passed away in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 10, 1991, from lung cancer.

Knight's Poetic Style

Knight's poetry often used Black vernacular. He also wrote some haiku, which are short Japanese poems with a 5, 7, 5 syllable pattern. One example is his poem "Vigo County": "Beyond the brown hill Above the silent cedars, Blackbirds flee the April rains." This poem shows how artists in the Black Arts Movement used their voices to escape silence.

Joyce Ann Joyce, a writer, said Knight's poetry was part of an African way of thinking about art. She felt his "tribute to the ancestors" was like a ritual. It brought back and redefined the values of his ancestors. This made his work very different from European ideas of reading texts. Joyce called him a "truly African oral performer." She said his poems came from his own life and the lives of his people.

In his poem "Cell Song," Knight shared his wish to create good things from his time in prison. He wrote to himself:

Night Music Slanted

Light strike the cave of sleep. I alone

tread the red circle

and twist the space with speech

Come now, etheridge, don't

be a savior; take your words and scrape

the sky, shake rain

on the desert, sprinkle

salt on the tail

of a girl,

can there anything

good come out of

prison

Knight makes the reader feel like they are in the prison cell with him. The first three words are capitalized to show they are not real music, but the quiet sounds of night in prison. In the "red circle" of dark and light, he walks and thinks about his words. He wants to use his talents to do good outside the prison walls. He wants his words to make a difference. You can imagine Knight walking in small circles in his cell. The poem's words get tighter and tighter. He ends by saying that "good" can indeed "come out of prison."

Cassie Premo, who studied Knight's life, noted his poems often explored freedom and being held back. He wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Premo said his work looked at "prisons imposed from without" (like racism or poverty) and "prisons from within" (like repeating bad habits). These ideas were always balanced with the theme of freedom. His poems about suffering, survival, and love show that we are never completely trapped. Knight's poetry expresses our freedom of thought. It also shows our ability to connect with others.

In his prison poem, "The Warden Said to Me the Other Day," Knight showed his feelings of being held back.

The warden said to me the other day

(innocently, I think), "Say etheridge,

why come the black boys don't run off

like the white boys do?"

I lowered my jaw and scratched my head

And said (innocently, I think), "Well, suh,

I ain't for sure, but I reckon it's cause

We ain't got no wheres to run to."

This poem is written in a simple, storytelling style. Knight shows how black people might doubt their freedom and white people's intentions. He saw America as a kind of prison. Even if a warden wanted to be kind, their actions could still keep people trapped. For Knight, the real prison was how laws, controlled by white America, held back black people, even if they seemed physically free.

In his poem, "Belly Song," the speaker "sings of love." It includes all the feelings, pain, memories, and passion of life. In "The Stretching of the Belly," Knight compared the stretch marks of his wife, Charlene Blackburn, to his own scars. His wife's marks showed "growth and life." His scars came from "war, violence, and slavery."

Knight's Books

• Poems from Prison. Detroit: Broadside Press, 1968.
• 2 Poems for Black Relocation Centers, 1968.
• The Idea of Ancestry, 1968.
• Black Voices from Prison (with others). New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970.
• A Poem for Brother Man, 1972.
• For Black Poets Who Think of ***, 1972.
• Belly Song and Other Poems. Detroit: Broadside Press, 1973.
• Born of a Woman: New and Selected Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980.
• The Essential Etheridge Knight. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986.