Keezell Hall is named for Virginia State Sen. George B. Keezell, who played a key part in the State Normal and Industrial School for Women being located in Harrisonburg, Va. Keezell Hall was built in 1927 and originally named Reed Hall, honoring Dr. Walter Reed. The name was changed after the school’s infirmary was named after Reed. In 1958, Madison College named Kezell “father of the institution” as a tribute to him in an anniversary celebration of the school. Keezell Hall originally hosted a gymnasium and a swimming pool. The building was renovated in 1987 and the gymnasium and pool were relocated to accommodate the growing campus. Today the English Department is located in Keezell Hall.

An intriguing and important person of the Department of English faculty at JMU is Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin, who has been part of the faculty since 1985. Dr. Gabbin earned her B.A. degree in English from Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland in 1967. She went on to receive her M.A. in English in 1970 and Ph.D. in English and literature from the University of Chicago, Illinois in 1980. Gabbin’s career started as an English instructor at Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1971. She became an assistant professor of English at Chicago State University in 1972, where she remained until 1974. Gabbin also served as program director of the Catalyst for Youth, Inc. in Chicago from 1973 to 1975. In 1977 she became assistant professor of English at Lincoln University and was promoted to associate professor in 1982. She remained at Lincoln University until 1985 when she was hired as associate professor of English at James Madison University. In 1989 she was promoted to professor of English.

In 1994 Dr. Gabbin organized the first academic conference on African American poetry, titled “Furious Flower: A Revolution in African American Poetry.” In 2005 she established the Furious Flower Poetry Center at JMU. Her published work includes Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition, The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry, Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present, and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry. She also has a published children’s book, I Bet She Called Me Sugar Plum. The Furious Flower Poetry Center puts out a quarterly journal called The Fight and The Fiddle. The journal is a resource for poets, educators, and critics. Each issue features a Black poet and contains a critical profile and interview of the featured poet.

Housed on the northeast corner of campus, the Furious Flower Poetry Center is the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry. The program seeks to cultivate an appreciation of poetry for student of levels, from elementary to graduate school. The Center helps promote Black poets and preserve Black poetry. Dr. Gabbin was influenced in naming the Center by Pulitzer-Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks in her “The Second Sermon on Warpland” (1968):

The time
cracks into furious flower. Lifts its face
all unashamed. And sways in wicked grace.