Black Arts Movement Poet, Etheridge Knight, Was Born
Award-winning poet Etheridge Knight was born on April 19, 1931, in Corinth, Mississippi. He was an influential voice of the Black Arts Movement and focused on freedom from oppression. The Black Arts Movement was a time of both literary and artistic development in which many of the artists were also viewed as activists.
Knight dropped out of school at the age of 16, when he joined the army to serve in the Korean War. From 1947 to 1951, Knight served in the U.S. Army in Korea before having to return home with a shrapnel wound. He took drugs to escape the pain from his wound and became addicted. He returned to the home, but his addiction grew worse.
Knight’s addiction led him to crime. He was arrested for robbery in 1960 and served an eight-year prison term. His time in prison became the foundation of his poetic development.
While doing his time in Indiana State Prison, he began writing poetry and was able to connect with established Black artists such as Dudley Randall and Gwendolyn Brooks. His original work consisted of performing “toasts,” which are long narrative poems that are recited using a mixture of rhymed couplets and slang.
His very first collection of work was Poems from Prison, which was released in 1968. The collection included the quote, “I died in Korea from a shrapnel wound, and narcotics resurrected me. I died in 1960 from a prison sentence and poetry brought me back to life,” on its back cover.
Poems from Prison became a success and it allowed Knight to join forces with fellow poets Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti and Sonia Sanchez.
Sanchez and Knight were married for a few years and became important members of the Black Arts Movement. Knight took on a black power approach and composed another collection entitled Black Voices From Prison in 1970. In 1973, he completed Belly Song and Other Poems, which addressed issues of ancestry, racism and love. Knight received much recognition and acclaim as a major poet, earning him a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations.
Following his release from prison, Knight taught at various universities and served as editor and contributing editor to several magazines. He earned his bachelor’s degree in American poetry and criminal justice from Martin Center University in 1990.
