U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1976-1978
Robert Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1913. He published nine collections of poetry, including Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940); A Ballad of Remembrance (1962), winner of a grand prize at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in 1966; and Selected Poems (1966). In 1975, he was awarded the Academy of American Poets fellowship. Hayden was appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1976, the first African American to hold the position. He taught at Fisk University and the University of Michigan. Robert Hayden died in 1980.
Audio Recordings with Robert Hayden
- Robert Earl Hayden and Derek Walcott reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 21, 1968
- Readings in Afro-American poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, Michael S. Harper, and Robert Hayden reading their own poems and those of other Afro-American poets in the Coolidge Auditorium, Feb. 23, 1976
- Robert Hayden reading his poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 5, 1976
- Bicentennial poetry discussion: Galway Kinnell and Robert Earl Hayden in studio A of the Recording Laboratory, Nov. 5, 1976
- From the life, some remembrances: a chapter from an autobiography in progress in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 3, 1977
- Robert Earl Hayden reading his poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 3, 1977
- Consultants’ reunion readings by thirteen Consultants in Poetry in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 6, 1978
- How it strikes a contemporary: reflections on poetry and the role of the poet in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 8, 1978
- Robert Earl Hayden reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, July 25, 1978