“Poetry is life distilled,” figurative words spoken by poet laureate, activist, and award winning author Gwendolyn Brooks. Gwendolyn is one of the most influential and widely read American poets. She authored over 20 books and was the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize. She was also the first black woman to hold the role of Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now referred to as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. She was highly regarded even during her lifetime and served as the Illinois poet laureate for 32 years. She managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young black empowerment writers of the 1960s.
Gwendolyn was born in Topeka Kansas on June 7, 1917, to David Anderson Brooks, the son of a runaway slave, and Keziah Corinne (née Wims). Her father was a janitor who had hoped to become a doctor. Her mother was a school teacher and a classically trained pianist, Both parents supported her passion for reading and writing.
Gwendolyn began writing poetry in her teenage years and published her first poem “Eventide,” in American Childhood magazine at the age of 13. She sent her early poems to both Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, and both elder poets responded with letters of encouragement. She also became a regular contributor to the Chicago Defender’s “Lights and Shadows” poetry column when she was 16yrs old. She graduated from Woodrow Wilson Junior College in 1936.
Gwendolyn was the author of more than 20 books, including Children Coming Home (1991); Blacks (1987); To Disembark (1981); The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1986) Family Pictures (1970) and many others. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen published in 1949. She also wrote the novel, Maud Martha which as published in 1953 and Report from Part One: An Autobiography, published in 1972. Her books for children includes Bronzeville Boys and Girls published in1956. It was later re-released in 2015 with illustrations by Faith Ringgold.
After attending a literary conference at Fisk University in 1967, which was also attended by Amiri Baraka and other poets from the Black Arts Movement, Gwendolyn became an activist in the Black Power Movement. She also started a poetry workshop from her home. Participants included Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and Don L. Lee (Haki Madhubuti).
In 1968, Gwendolyn was named poet laureate for the state of Illinois for which she served 32yrs. In 1970, she was honored by the founding of Western Illinois University’s Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center. In 1976, she became the first Black American to join the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1985, she was the first black woman appointed as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress, now referred to as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. She also received an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the Frost Medal, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation. In addition, she earned more than 50 honorary degrees during her career. In 1995, she was awarded the National Medal of the Arts.
Gwendolyn spent her later years dedicated to public service. She conducted poetry readings at prisons and hospitals and attended annual poetry contests for school children, which she often funded.
Brooks lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000. Because of the wide recognition of her service and achievements, several schools were named for her. In 2017, the centenary year of Gwendolyn’s birth was celebrated at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where her papers are held. “Brooks Day” is celebrated annually in her hometown of Chicago.
NOTABLE WORKS:
Poetry Books
- Children Coming Home (The David Co., 1991)
- Winnie (The David Co., 1988)
- Blacks (The David Co., 1987)
- The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (The David Co., 1986)
- To Disembark (Third World Press, 1981)
- Beckonings (Broadside Press, 1975)
- Aurora (Broadside Press, 1972)
- Aloneness (Broadside Press, 1971)
- The World of Gwendolyn Brooks (Harper & Row, 1971)
- Riot (Broadside Press, 1970)
- Family Pictures (Broadside Press, 1970)
- In the Mecca (Harper & Row, 1968)
- The Wall (Broadside Press, 1967)
- We Real Cool (Broadside Press, 1966)
- Selected Poems (Harper & Row, 1963)
- The Bean Eaters (Harper, 1960)
- Bronzeville Boys and Girls (Harper, 1956)
- Annie Allen (Harper, 1949)
- A Street in Bronzeville (Harper & Brothers, 1945)
Prose
- Primer for Blacks (Black Position Press, 1981)
- Young Poet’s Primer (Brooks Press, 1981)
- A Capsule Course in Black Poetry Writing (Broadside Press, 1975)
- Report from Part One: An Autobiography (Broadside Press, 1972)
- Maud Martha (Harper, 1953)
QUOTES:
“First fight. Then fiddle.”
“Art hurts. Art urges voyages – and it is easier to stay at home.”
“What I’m fighting for now in my work… for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.”
“I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.”
“We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
“Poetry is life distilled.”
“When you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you’re telling them that they’re less than somebody else.”
“I’ve always thought of myself as a reporter.”
SOURCES:
https://poets.org/poet/gwendolyn-brooks
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gwendolyn-brooks
CREDITS:
Recreate Model: Adeline Rivers
Photographer & Editor of Recreated Photo: Jasmine Mallory
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