Austin Voice

Brad Cummings, Founder, Editor, Photographer Of the Austin Voice.

 

The Austin Weekly (April 2026) 

Poets and performers filled the North Austin Branch Library on Saturday for a West Side Poetry Slam celebrating National Poetry Month and honoring the late Brad Cummings, founder of The Austin Voice. 

Cummings passed away last year in a fatal North Avenue fire along with three members of the Brown Henry family. The tribute honored Cummings for giving the West Side a voice and supporting poets across Chicago 

The poets shared original works and tributes that highlighted the power of words to connect and inspire the community. 

Doreen Ambrose-Van Lee, one of the founding members of the Library Poetry Group, dedicated a poem to Cummings. She said it was important to center the event around him because every poet on the West Side had been featured in The Austin Voice and they were shocked and saddened when they learned of his death. 

Youth attendees talk and read together ahead of a poetry slam at the North Austin Branch Library on Chicago’s West Side, April 2026. (Kenn Cook Jr.

“The last time I saw him was last year at a breast cancer event. I remember handing him one of the poems he had printed, ‘Never Give Up,’ and that was the first time I ever did that outside of a poetry event. Something just told me to let him know who I am. I had met him several times before, but I wanted him to know that I was dedicating ‘Never Give Up’ to him for printing my poetry. I remember giving it to him and then standing on stage to read the poem,” Lee said. 

Poem Dedicated To The Editor of The Austin Voice:

 

Throughout decades during the month of April and beyond you helped thousands of people to paint a perfect picture with words,

With the West Side and the World as our canvas you showcased poems from every subject from Michael Jackson to the beauty of birds.

I loved each and every illustration that accompanied the poems because I could see that thought and heart went into every detail,

And I wholeheartedly expressed that to you in an email. 

I got a chance to meet you for the first time when you came to the North Austin Public Library to photograph our Poetry Slam,

Man, you always put us from and center with your cam!

Over the years, I saw you at community events 

With camera in hand and I smiled,

The last time that I saw you was at the Arthur Lockhart Foundation 4th Annual  Breast Cancer Walk and 

before we walked for miles,

I approached you and gave you a copy of a poem that I wrote and you published in The Austin Voice called 'Never Give Up'.

Then I went onto the stage and read it to the crowd and it flowed freely without no interrupt.

Brad, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, as I know so many others do for giving the West side of The Chi a

voice, a window to the world...a beautiful start.

 

Doreen Ambrose Van Lee