Misplaced Pages

Dolores Kendrick
Born	(1927-09-07)September 7, 1927 Washington, D.C.
Died	November 7, 2017(2017-11-07) (aged 90) Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Teacher poet
Genre	Poetry
Notable works	The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women
Notable awards	Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia

Dolores Kendrick (September 7, 1927 – November 7, 2017) was an American poet, and served as the second Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia. Her book The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women won the Anisfield-Wolf Award.

Biography

Dolores Teresa Kendrick was born on September 7, 1927, in Washington, DC. to parents Josephine, a musician and teacher, and Robert "Ike", founder and publisher of the Capitol Spotlight. She grew up in the LeDroit Park neighborhood near Howard University. She attended Dunbar High School where she began writing poetry, and went on to Miners Teachers College to study English. She earned a master's degree in linguistics from Georgetown University in 1970 as part of the Experienced Teacher Fellowship Program. She designed the humanities curriculum for D.C.'s School Without Walls. In 1963 she received a Fulbright exchange in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Kendrick was a Vira I. Heinz Professor Emerita at Phillips Exeter Academy.

She adapted The Women of Plums for the theater, which won the 1997 New York New Playwrights Award.

She adapted The Women of Plums into a CD, The Color of Dusk, with Wall Matthews and Aleta Greene.

Kendrick died at her Washington, D.C. home on November 7, 2017, aged 90, from complications of cancer.

Works

• Through the Ceiling, Paul Breman Limited, 1975
• Now Is the Thing to Praise, Lotus Press, 1984, ISBN 978-0-916418-54-0
• The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women, Phillips Exeter Academy Press, 1990, ISBN 978-0-939618-08-8
• Why the woman is singing on the corner: a verse narrative, Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2001, ISBN 978-1-931807-00-5

Awards and honors

• 1963: Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program, Belfast, Northern Ireland
• 1965: Deep South Writers' Award for narrative poem "Freddie"
• 1967: Visiting Master, 'Iolani School, Honolulu, Hawai'i
• 1981: Poet-in-Residence at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts
• 1988: Creative Writing Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
• 1990: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for The Women of Plums
• 1997: New York New Playwrights Award for her stage adaptation of The Women of Plums
• 1999: Named Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia
• 2005: Inducted into the Washington, D.C. Hall of Fame in the cultural arts category

References

1. "Dolores Kendrick", Smithsonian, Anacostia Community Museum Archived 2016-12-09 at the Wayback Machine, Anacostia.si.edu; accessed November 11, 2017.
2. "Office of the Poet Laureate". Archived from the original on 2012-05-18. Retrieved 2011-11-07.
3. The 78th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, Anisfield-wolf.org; accessed November 11, 2017.
4. "Dolores Kendrick, Washington's 'first lady of poetry,' dies at 90".
5. "Commencement 1971 -Program, Honorary Degrees" (May 23, 1971) . Commencement Files. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Archives, Georgetown University.
6. Roeming, Robert (1972). Developing Awareness Through Poetry. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. pp. iv.
7. Dolores Kendrick page, KorePress.org; accessed November 11, 2017.
8. ^ Dolores Kendrick biography, Bowzerbird.com; accessed November 11, 2017.
9. "Poetry by Dolores Kendrick, Washington, D.C. Why the Woman is Singing on the Corner, Peter E. Randall Publisher, Book Publishing, New England Local and Town History". Perpublisher.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
10. Smith, Harrison (9 November 2017). "Dolores Kendrick, Washington's 'first lady of poetry,' dies at 90". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
11. ^ Kendrick, Dolores (1984). Now Is the Thing to Praise. Detroit: Lotus Press. p. 117. ISBN 0916418545.
12. "Introducing New Faculty" (Fall 1967) . Iolani School Bulletin, Series: vol VIII, no. 1, ID: RG021:9.ISP.ISB, p. 10. Honolulu, Hawai'i: 'Iolani School Archives, 'Iolani School.
13. "Literature Fellowships". National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
14. "The Women of Plums - Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
15. "City Names Its Own Poet Laureate". The Washington Post. May 20, 1999. pp. DC2. ProQuest 1735761010. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
16. "City's Hall of Fame Names 19 Inductees". The Washington Post. April 18, 2005. pp. B3. ProQuest 2605713631. Retrieved April 7, 2022.

External links

• Megan Buerger (September 2, 2011). "D.C. Poet Laureate Dolores Kendrick wants to rejuvenate poetry's place". The Washington Post.
• "The 3-minute interview: Dolores Kendrick", The Washington Examiner, Scott McCabe, January 31, 2008
• A Poem for Mom, Set to Her Favorite Opera, NPR, May 9, 2005
• "Review: Dolores Kendrick's The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women (William Morrow Company, Inc. 1989)"
• "Poetry of Levine & Kendrick". The Library of Congress Webcasts.

• 1927 births
• 2017 deaths
• American women poets
• African-American poets
• Catholic poets
• Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C.
• Georgetown University alumni
• Poets from Washington, D.C.
• Poets Laureate of the District of Columbia
• Phillips Exeter Academy faculty
• American women educators
• 20th-century American women
• 20th-century African-American women
• 20th-century African-American writers
• 21st-century African-American women
• 20th-century American poets
• 21st-century American poets