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Collection Description
Dennis
Brutus at WSC
Unpublished Poetry
Center for the Study of Human Rights
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Dennis Brutus at Worcester State College
Dennis Brutus' long association with Worcester State
College, which spans over twenty years, began on May 28, 1982, when he
appeared as key speaker at the inauguration of the Center for the Study of
Human Rights at Worcester State College. The next day, May 29, 1982, he was
awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters for both his heroic
activities as an opponent of Apartheid in South Africa as well as for his
distinguished achievement as a poet. It was at this time that, partly out
of gratitude for the College's support of him during his dramatic battle to
win political asylum in the United States and partly out of a generous
desire to assist the newly created Center for the Study of Human Rights, he
donated an extensive number of personal manuscripts and other items to the
Center.
 After
a long hiatus, Dr. Brutus returned to the College, participating in several
human rights programs together with the Archbishop of South Africa, the
Right Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, on March 21-11, 2000. Again, he made
extensive donations to the Dennis Brutus Collection at Worcester State
College which was formally unveiled on March 21, 2000. In the following
year, he was appointed Poet-in-Residence for the spring semester, 2001,
during which he appeared in human rights programs, co-taught courses in the
College's Honors Program, and composed several new poems, one of which, "Zocalo,
March 11, 2001," he read during the Commencement exercises for the College's
125th Anniversary, May 19, 2001. |
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