U of Ideas of General Interest -- November 1999
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact: Andrea Lynn, Humanities/Social Sciences Editor (217) 333-2177; [email protected]
LITERATURE
Poet, citing debt to alma mater, donates personal papers to university
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For "sentimental reasons," including deep gratitude to his alma mater, Leonard A. Slade Jr., an acclaimed and prolific poet, has given his personal papers to the University of Illinois Library. His gift, which includes correspondence, manuscripts, published works, reviews, photographs and memorabilia, becomes the University Library's first collection of papers of an African-American literary figure.
"The University of Illinois has been very good to me and to my wife," Slade said. "We have special feelings for our great alma mater." Slade earned his doctorate in English from the U. of I. in 1972. His wife, Roberta Hall-Slade, earned her master's degree in musicology at Illinois in 1977.
Slade also said he gave Illinois his papers "because it is one of the top universities in the world, and because the library is one of the top libraries in the country. I figured that if I gave my papers to the U. of I., then 100 years from now and beyond, my papers would be there, and be well cared for."
The papers will be housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Library. A database of the items is being developed, through which scholars and others can do searches by means of the Internet.
A professor of African studies and English at the State University of New York at Albany, Slade is the author of 13 books -- 10 of them volumes of poetry. His latest book, "Elisabeth and Other Poems," was just released. Slade, who also has been published widely in magazines and journals, including Ebony, Essence and U.S. News & World Report, is the president of the Langston Hughes Society.
Slade previously taught at Kentucky State University. He also was the chair of KSU's Division of Literature, Languages and Philosophy, and dean of its College of Arts and Sciences. For many summers he was writer-in-residence at Bennington College, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College and at the Ragdale Artists' Colony in Lake Forest, Ill. Of the many awards he has received, he said he is most proud of his excellence in teaching awards from KSU and SUNY-Albany.
Slade's poetry has been described as "authentic and joyous celebrations of the human spirit." Maya Angelou called his "Lilacs in Bloom" a "welcome salve to all of us who are in need." In that volume, published last year, Slade devoted six poems to Abraham Lincoln; in one poem, he tells Lincoln: "You taught a people how to unite and triumph. You taught the world the power of love."
The eldest of nine children, Slade was raised on a farm in North Carolina. His childhood and his heritage, he said, are "the source material for my writing." When asked what motivates him to write poetry, Slade cited another poet. "You know what Langston Hughes said about poetry. He said, 'Poetry is the human soul entire, squeezed like a lemon or a lime, drop by drop into atomic words Ö.' So, I suppose I wanted to share my soul with the world. It's therapeutic for me to write. It's a tonic for my soul to express my feelings.
"I also hope I've written something beautiful, something that will elevate other people's souls."
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