MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – As part of Northern Michigan University’s America 250 celebration, the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center kicked off its 2026 event series with a special celebration of poet and former slave, Phillis Wheatley.
Wednesday night’s program at the Lydia M. Olson Library in Harden Hall on NMU’s campus featured an in-depth look at Wheatley’s life and legacy.
Born in West Africa and enslaved in Boston, Wheatley became the first African to publish a book in America.
Speakers from NMU’s History and English Departments brought to life the poetic genius in Wheatley’s writing and her unlikely celebrity in colonial America.
Wheatley was named Phillis after the boat that brought her in chains to the New World, and Wheatley after the man who purchased her in Boston upon her arrival.
“And thinking of her being able to not just read or write but to craft art, the most difficult literary art form that the Western world had to offer, they would be in sheer disbelief that someone of that background would have had that ability,” said NMU Professor Sandy Burr.
The program featured selected readings from Wheatley’s poetry and even music composed with her poems used as lyrics.
