Dolores Kendrick (September 7, 1927 – November 7, 2017) was an American poet, and served as the second Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia."Dolores Kendrick", Smithsonian, Anacostia Community Museum , Anacostia.si.edu; accessed November 11, 2017. Her book The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women won the Anisfield-Wolf Award.The 78th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, Anisfield-wolf.org; accessed November 11, 2017.
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, earning a bachelor's degree in 1949. 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, where she was a co-founder. In 1963 she received a Fulbright Teacher Exchange to go to Belfast, Northern Ireland.
She published her first book of poetry, Through the Ceiling, in 1975, followed by Now Is the Thing to Praise (1984). Kendrick was a Vira I. Heinz professor emerita at Phillips Exeter Academy.Dolores Kendrick page, KorePress.org; accessed November 11, 2017. She adapted The Women of Plums for the theater, which won the 1997 New York New Playwrights Award.Dolores Kendrick biography, Bowzerbird.com; accessed November 11, 2017. Then she further adapted it into a digital 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, The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women, Phillips Exeter Academy Press, 1990, Why the Woman Is Singing on the Corner: A Verse Narrative, Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2001,
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
External links
"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.