Detroit poet-scholar Melba Joyce Boyd named Kresge Eminent Artist of 2023

Kresge Arts in Detroit announced its 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist on Thursday, presenting the annual honor for lifetime achievement in the arts to Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd, a Detroit poet, essayist, biographer, editor, professor and filmmaker.

Boyd expressed surprise and delight at the announcement, which comes on the heels of a surprise Spirit of Detroit Award she was presented during a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration earlier this month.

“The one thing that’s great about this award,’’ said Boyd, “is that you don’t apply for it. You’re getting real appreciation for your work from people who understand what it means to make work in Detroit. That’s something special. It’s a reminder and celebration of the culture we have here and the way that it continues.

“There’s a great community of artists here. Detroit is always happening. There’s always something to write about, that’s for sure.”

Boyd is the 15th Kresge Eminent Artist since the award was launched in 2008. She has published 13 books in her 50-plus year career, and contributed more than 100 essays to anthologies, academic journals, cultural periodicals and newspapers across the United States and Europe. A Boyd poem also served as the dedication for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and is inscribed in bronze on the building’s wall. She has been awarded numerous honors, including multiple Library of Michigan Notable Book awards and a 2010 Independent Publishers Award, as well as being a 2010 finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Poetry.

As a young poet, Boyd worked under local legend Dudley Randall, founder of the pioneering, Detroit-based, Black-owned Broadside Press, literary home of names such as Nikki Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Haki Madhubuti and 2019’s Kresge Eminent Artist, Dr. Gloria House.

Boyd served as Randall’s assistant before moving up to an editor position. She was also mentored by 2012 Kresge Eminent Artist Naomi Long Madgett, who founded Detroit’s similarly seminal Lotus Press. Boyd went on to write biographies and create films about both Randall and Madgett.

“I think they’d be proud of this moment,” she said.”

Her “Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall” won the 2010 Independent Publishers Award, the 2010 Library of Michigan Notable Books Award and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award and the Foreword Book Award for Poetry. “Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press” received a 2004 Honor Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

The vibrant 72-year-old remains busy as ever, currently at work on multiple projects, and recently gave a talk at the Wright Museum on the historical parallels between the works of Frederick Douglass, Gil Scott-Heron and Donald Glover alter ego Childish Gambino. She is also a distinguished professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University, teaching courses on African-American cinema.

“In our Eminent Artist initiative, we lift up individuals who have for decades both reflected our times and fired up our imaginations,” said Rip Rapson, president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation. “Melba Joyce Boyd is yet another of these fulcrums of creativity. As both a scholar of important African American artists and an artist in her own right, she grounds us in history and inspires us to think about the future.”

“It wasn’t easy. We looked at lots of amazing artists. But when it came down to it, we all felt that she was the most deserving this year,’’ explains Grace Serra, art collection curator for Wayne State University and member of this year’s selection panel. “This is not just art for art’s sake. The quality of the work she’s done and the continued relevance is important. It’s about social justice and honesty. And she’s fierce. She hasn’t mellowed with age. You can tell there’s still more to be said.’’

The Kresge Eminent Artist award is accompanied by an unrestricted $50,000 cash prize and the creation of a short film and limited-edition monograph to help chronicle each artist’s creative impact and cultural contributions. Each year, the film is released to the public online and the book is made available at no cost. Printed copies of the book can be preordered by visiting Kresge.org.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kresge Eminent Artist of 2023: Detroit poet-scholar Melba Joyce Boyd