Dr. Fabu Phillis Carter is both an artist and community activist who has an extensive career designing innovative programs to benefit African American children, families and elders in Madison. Professionally known as Poet Fabu in Madison, Wisconsin, she is a poet, culture columnist, storyteller and teaching artist who writes to encourage, inspire and remind.
Selected as the first African American as Madison Poet Laureate (2008–2012), she continues to share the Black experience living in the South, the Midwest and in Kenya through her oral and written work. Poetry editor for Umoja Magazine and Madison Magazine, she was also poetry editor for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poetry 2019 annual edition. She continues as poetry editor for the Capitol City Hues and is a culture columnist for it and the Cap Times newspaper.
Dr. Fabu Carter has a PhD from, The African Women Studies Centre, University of Nairobi Her 2020 dissertation was entitled, An Examination of Mary Lou Williams’ Creative Resilience Against Racism and Patriarchy. In 2021 she became a Commissioner for the Madison Arts Commission. Also in 2021, she co-hosted Poetry for Life, a telephone poetry session every Thursday with Poet Gary Glazner. In 2022 that changed to an in-person Poetry and Arts Café held on the first Tuesday of each month at the UW South Madison Partnership Office. In 2023, she was invited to join the editorial board for the journal, Pathways to African Feminism and Development.
Fabu is the author of eight books of poetry; Poems, Dreams and Roses (Madison Arts Commission, 2009), In Our Own Tongues, (University of Nairobi Press, 2011), Journey to Wisconsin: African American Life in Haiku (Parallel Press, 2011), Love Poems (Ironer’s Press, 2016). Journey to Wisconsin… won an Outstanding Achievement in Poetry award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her next three published books are on Marhey Lou Williams, jazz genius. They are Remember Me: Mary Lou Williams in Poetry, Sacred Mary Lou and Mary Lou Williams Coloring Book (all Ironer’s Press, 2019, 2020 & 2022). In 2023, We Eat to Remember: Soul Food Poetry (Ironer’s Press) focuses on African American gastronomy, and the important connections between culture and food. Poet Fabu latest manuscript of poetry is We Are Wisconsin Too, due in 2024 as a tribute to all the people groups who are Wisconsinites.