Miller, in one of his briefest and most fitting descriptions, is a literary
activist. An educator and author known for his staying power in a transient
scene and sustained nurturance of students, he has been the director of the
African American Resource Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C.,
since 1974. He has written 10 books, and many anthologies feature his poems.
He is the recipient of several awards, including the Public Humanities Award
from the D.C. Humanities Council, the Columbia Merit Award, the PEN Oakland
Josephine Miles Award, and the O.B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize. Two cities,
Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Tennessee, have declared an "E. Ethelbert
Miller Day."
A longtime resident and astute observer of the nation's capital, Miller has
watched the mounting toll of HIV-AIDS through its neighborhoods and the
lives and families near him. In 2005, he took a commission from the D.C.
Arts and Humanities Council and the Washington Metropolitan Transit
Authority to commemorate the city's 25-year struggle with the disease and
the countermeasures, both intimate and public, that people have mounted to
confront it. Miller's memorial takes the form of a poem embedded in concrete
surrounding a public bench downtown near an entrance to the Dupont Circle
Metro station.
WE EMBRACE
We fought against the invisible
We looked to one another for comfort
We held the hands of friends and lovers
We did not turn our backs
We embraced
We embraced
© E. Ethelbert Miller, 2005
More information about his work can be found
here.
