Background
Walker was born Frank Walker, Junior., in Danville, Kentucky, the second of eleven children. He grew up in Danville, where the family lived in public housing projects.
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book
Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride
(In this richly imagined collection of poems, Frank X Walk...)
In this richly imagined collection of poems, Frank X Walker brings to life the mind and heart of legendary African-American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy (1861-1896). The son of a slave, Murphy rose to the top of thoroughbred racing in a brilliant career that brought him wealth, honor and international fame. The first to win the Kentucky Derby three times (1884, 1890, 1891), Murphy won an unprecedented 44% of the races he entered. Part of the lore surrounding Murphy's legacy was his penchant for not using the whip. He preferred to ride his mounts into the winner's circle by using his well-honed skills and simply talking to his horses. Through poetic imagination and historical research, Walker creates a unique literary portrait of Murphy. The poems are written in the voices of Murphy and his wife Lucy, his mentor African-American trainer Eli Jordan, and his parents James and America Burns. Their words follow Murphy's childhood years in Lexington, Kentucky, his rise to become America's most famous jockey, his encounters with racial violence in the post-Civil War South, and his early death at age thirty-five. In Murphy's time, thoroughbred racing was dominated by African-American jockeys. In the first Kentucky Derby, thirteen of the fifteen jockeys were black. Of the first twenty-eight runnings of the Derby (1875-1902), fifteen were won by African-American riders. As the century ended, black jockeys began to disappear from racing, an exodus that continued throughout the twentieth century. I Dedicate This Ride helps bring this important history to light. "I hope the knowledge of thoroughbred racing's original legacy can be returned to the African-American community and to all of us," says Walker. "I hope the book adds to the growing appreciation of Isaac Murphy as one of Kentucky's and the nation's greatest African-American figures. At the height of his career, Isaac was as famous as Jack Johnson, as fast as Jesse Owens, as dignified as Jackie Robinson and as admired as Michael Jordan. In Kentucky, he is to Lexington what Muhammad Ali is to Louisville." The poems imagined/spoken here by Isaac and Lucy Murphy, Eli Jordan, and James and America Burns tell Murphy's compelling life story. They shine a light on the life of America's most celebrated black jockey, his family and community, and the historical canvas on which his extraordinary life played out.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096754243X/?tag=2022091-20
Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride by Frank X Walker (2010-09-17)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JXO4YJG/?tag=2022091-20
Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride by Frank X Walker (2010-09-17)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH04C51/?tag=2022091-20
Frank Walker
Edit ProfileEducation
University of Kentucky.
Career
Walker coined the word "Affrilachia", signifying the importance of the African-American presence in Appalachia: the "new word.. spoke to the union of Appalachian identity and the region"s African-American culture and history". As of 2013, he is the Poet Laureate of Kentucky. He was an avid reader as a child.
He describes himself as both a "nerd" and an athlete in his teenage years.
He was recruited to attend the University of Kentucky in engineering, but changed his major to English. He now holds life membership within the organization.
lieutenant was during his college years that he adopted the middle initial "X", which was given to him by friends. He completed an Master of Fine Arts in Writing at Spalding University in May 2003.
In January 2010, he returned to the University of Kentucky to accept a position as professor in the English Department.
In 2013, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky, the first African-American to hold that position. Walker"s poems have been converted into a stage production by the University of Kentucky Theatre department. He regularly teaches in writing programs like Fishtrap in Oregon and SplitRock at the University of Minnesota.
Achievements
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2004 Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award 2006 Thomas D. Clark Literary Award for Excellence, Actors Theatre"s Keeper of the Chronicle Award 2005 Recipient of a $75,000 Lannan Literary Fellowship in Poetry Kentucky Arts Council First Rate (at Lloyd's) Smith Fellowship recipient 2013-2014 Kentucky Poet Laureate 2014 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Award: Outstanding Literary in Poetry.
Works
book
-
Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride
(In this richly imagined collection of poems, Frank X Walk...)
- Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride by Frank X Walker (2010-09-17)
- Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride by Frank X Walker (2010-09-17)
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Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride
Membership
At Danville High School, he played football on the school team, was a member of several clubs, and was twice elected class president Walker is a charter member of the Mu Theta chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at the University of Kentucky. A founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the founding editor (2007) and publisher of PLUCK!, the new Journal of Affrilachian Art & Culture.
Connections
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Born
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Nationality
United States
Education
Awards
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Lillian Smith Book Award NAACP Image Award; Jesse Stuart Award 2004 Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award 2006 Thomas D. Clark Literary Award for Excellence, Actors Theatre's Keeper of the Chronicle Award 2005 Recipient of a $75,000 Lannan Literary Fellowship in Poetry Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Fellowship recipient 2013-14 Kentucky Poet Laureate 2014 NAACP Image Award: Outstanding Literary in Poetry.Lillian Smith Book Award NAACP Image Award; Jesse Stuart Award 2004 Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award 2006 Thomas D. Clark Literary Award for Excellence, Actors Theatre's Keeper of the Chronicle Award 2005 Recipient of a $75,000 Lannan Literary Fellowship in Poetry Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Fellowship recipient 2013-14 Kentucky Poet Laureate 2014 NAACP Image Award: Outstanding Literary in Poetry.