Call for Papers: A Furious Flower Blooms–Honoring the Intellectual and Political Leadership of Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin
Collage of Joanne Gabbin by Doriana Diaz.
A call for papers celebrating and honoring Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin.
This is an announcement to share a call for papers celebrating and honoring the intellectual and political contributions of Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin, founder of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation's first academic center for Black poetry. The papers will be a part of an anthology on the contributions of Dr. Gabbin, which will be edited by Jaimee A. Swift, executive director and founder of Black Women Radicals and Assistant Professor of Black Politics in the Department of Political Science at James Madison University.
Deadline: The deadline for submissions is March 1st, 2025.
Please direct any inquiries about the anthology to Jaimee Swift (swiftja@jmu.edu).
A Furious Flower Blooms:
Honoring the Intellectual and Political Leadership of Dr. Joanne Gabbin
Edited by Jaimee A. Swift (James Madison University)
Dr. Joanne Veal Gabbin has given so much to our world. An activist, educator, poet, scholar, and community organizer, Dr. Gabbin’s work spans the intellectual, political, and cultural gamut. A pioneering visionary, her leadership has and continues to inspire generations of poets, educators, activists, and more in the United States and beyond.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Gabbin earned her B.A. degree in English from Morgan State College in 1967 and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English and Literature from the University of Chicago in 1970 and 1980, respectively. Gabbin began her career as an instructor of English at Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1971, and later was hired as an Assistant Professor of English at Chicago State University in 1972. From 1973 to 1975, she was the program director and instructor of Catalyst for Youth, Inc., in Chicago, a non-profit organization created to help young people to become emotionally stable, socially responsible, and physically healthy contributing members of society.
In 1977, Gabbin became an Assistant Professor of English at Lincoln University and was later promoted to Associate Professor of English in 1982. After serving in this position until 1985, she was hired as an Associate Professor of English at James Madison University (JMU). Despite her contending with the ills of racism, discrimination, and sexism in the Department of English at JMU, she refused to allow the ignorance of some to deter her from her mission of excelling as a professor, educator, and scholar. In the spirit of fortitude and resilience, Gabbin persevered and later became Director of the Honors College, a position she held until 2005. In 1987, she founded the Wintergreen Women Writers’ Collective, an intergenerational gathering, communion, and literary sisterhood of Black women writers.
In 1994, Gabbin organized the first academic conference on Black poetry, titled, “Furious Flower: A Revolution in African American Poetry” at James Madison University. Named in honor of renowned Pulitzer-Prize winning poet and former U.S Poet Laureate, Gwendolyn Brooks, and an ode to her 1968 poem, “The Second Sermon on the Warpland”, the conference brought together over 400 attendees and featured prominent Black poets including Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez. The conference was hailed by The Washington Post as a “historic gathering.” After the successes of the first and second Furious Flower Poetry Conferences, Gabbin established the Furious Flower Poetry Center at JMU, the first academic center dedicated to Black poetry in the United States.
Gabbin is also the author and editor of several works including Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition; Furious Flower: African American Poetry From the Black Arts Movement to the Present; and The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry. She is the executive producer of the Furious Flower video and DVD series. After 37 years at JMU, she retired in 2022 and JMU’s Gabbin Hall is named in her honor.
We invite submissions of academic articles, reflective pieces, poetry, and review essays on Dr. Joanne Gabbin’s substantial and wide-ranging scholarship and community work.
Themes and topics include (but are not limited to):
Impact of the Furious Flower Poetry Center and Furious Flower Poetry Conferences
The Future of the Furious Flower Poetry Center
Wintergreen Women’s Writers’ Collective
Joanne Gabbin and Black Poetry
Joanne Gabbin and Black Women’s Poetics
Joanne Gabbin and the Black Arts Movement
Joanne Gabbin and Community Organizing
The World of Black Poetry
Black Feminist Thought and Politics
The Power of Black Women Writers
Public scholarship and community-based organizing and interventions
Black Poetics in the African Diaspora
The Futurity of Black Poetry and Prose
Black Women’s Sisterhood, Intimacies, and Solidarity
Reflections of African American Women Writers
Impact on Gwendolyn Brooks and Margaret Walker on Joanne Gabbin’s Leadership
Black Women and Community Building
Black Poetry, Archives, and Memory Work
Misogynoir and Black Women in Academia
Revolutionary Black Literature
Paper Submission
Authors are invited to submit papers for this anthology to gabbinanthology@gmail.com.
When submitting, in the subject line, please put LAST NAME, FIRST NAME - GABBIN ANTHOLOGY.
Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication while being evaluated for this anthology.
Important Dates
Submission Deadline : March 1, 2025.
Notification of Acceptance : April 1, 2025.
Final Edited Manuscript Due: August 15, 2025.
Publication Date: Determined by the Editor.
Manuscript Requirements
The final revised manuscript – in a Word document – should be double-spaced, in a 12-point font, must have a title, and must have a complete bibliography of all sources cited. Ensure the word count is between 2,500 - 3,000.
For poetry, please keep the word count between 1,000 - 2,000 words.
Subheadings should be in bold typeface. Refer to the Chicago Manual of Style (latest edition) for grammatical guidance. Avoid page layout formatting. Please insert page numbers.
Please make sure to add an author’s short bio at the end of the Word document.
Black Feminists Taught Me - Baltimore:
Honoring Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin
Black Women Radicals and Philadelphia PrintWorks “Black Feminists Taught Me” t-shirt capsule and collaboration pays homage to Black women and gender expansive people who inspire us, touch our lives, shape our politics, and taught us–in a myriad of ways–about life, love, leadership, and legacy. The second collection honors Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin, Lisa Snowden, Dr. Ashley C.J. Daniels, and Teri Henderson – Black feminist poets, writers, scholars, and journalists in and from Baltimore - who have and continue to use the power of their pens and words to enact radical change.
More specifically, this collection honors legacy of world renown poet Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010), who lived in Baltimore and from 1979 to 1985 was Poet Laureate of Maryland.
In this video, Dr. Joanne Gabbin shares why she founded the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the first academic center devoted to Black poetry, named in honor of trailblazing poet, Gwendolyn Brooks.
Video by Kerrin Lyons.