18 Facts About Robert Chrisman

Robert Chrisman was a poet, scholar, and founding editor and publisher of The Black Scholar.

Robert Chrisman was born on May 28,1937, in Yuma, Arizona, and raised near Nogales, Arizona.

Robert Chrisman's mother, Thelma Allimono, was a homemaker and later in life became a teacher.

Robert Chrisman was a daughter of W D Allimono, the first African-American certified public accountant.

Robert Chrisman quickly became involved in the diverse San Francisco cultural scene.

Robert Chrisman studied literature in UC Berkeley's English department, under the mentorship of Josephine Miles.

Robert Chrisman graduated from UC Berkeley in 1958 with a BA in English Literature and a minor in Philosophy.

Robert Chrisman's MA thesis was a collection of poems that became the nucleus for his first book of poetry, Children of Empire.

Robert Chrisman obtained a PhD in English from the University of Michigan; his dissertation was a study of the Afro-modernist poet Robert Hayden.

In November 1969, Robert Chrisman co-founded The Black Scholar with Nathan Hare and Allan Ross, a white printer and activist.

Robert Chrisman believed that by relying on community support TBS could be self determining.

Robert Chrisman taught a variety of courses in literature, creative writing, cultural studies, and black studies at institutions that include the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, University of San Francisco, University of Michigan, Williams College, UC Berkeley, University of Vermont, and Wayne State University.

Robert Chrisman's poems were published in Occident, Transfer, Contact, Plural, Galley Sail Review, Berkeley Review, Callaloo, Wasafiri, South and West, Mexico Quarterly Review, Frisco, The Black Scholar, and elsewhere.

Robert Chrisman used poetry as one of the primary forms through which to express his vision.

Robert Chrisman often explores the human consequences of empires both ancient and modern, highlighting local and international perspectives.

Robert Chrisman frequently wrote elegies and celebrations of friendship.

Additionally, Robert Chrisman was a prolific essayist who covered a wide range of subject material, from black incarceration and global political struggles to the literary genre of the slave narrative.

Robert Chrisman died on March 10,2013, at his home in San Francisco of complications from congestive heart failure.