Gwendolyn+Brooks

“Don't let anyone call you a minority if you're black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You're not less than anybody else.” (Gwendolyn Brooks) Gwendolyn Brooks was an African American Poet but she didn’t let her race stop her from achieving her goals. She wrote many inspirational poems mostly directed to the younger crowd that inspired the kids to keep reading and writing. She wrote many famous poems such as “We Real Cool” and “The Boy That Died In My Alley.”

Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 7, 1917. Gwendolyn’s passion toward writing started when she was only 13. She published her first poem, “Eventide”, in the magazine American Childhood at age 13 in 1730. When Brooks was in high school, she met a poet named James Weldon Johnson. James knew Gwendolyn enjoyed poetry so he recommended some poems from famous poets such as T.S Eliot and E.E. Cummings. After reading and admiring these poets and their poems, Gwendolyn wanted to keep writing so she published seventy more of her own poems. She kept on pushing herself to produce more poems and with the help of Langston Hughes, she was able to produce great poems. (Harold Bloom, Ebsco)

After graduating high school, she attended Wilson Junior College to study English. Later, she became a member of the Chicago Defender News who published over 100 of Brooks poems every week. In 1945, her first book of poetry, __A Street in Bronzeville,__ was published. This book was a great success. From her success, she was selected one of //Mademoiselle// magazine's "Ten Young Women of the Year," she won her first Guggenheim Fellowship, and she became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her second book of poems, //Annie Allen// (1949), won //Poetry// magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize. In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. One of her most exciting events was when President John Kennedy invited Gwendolyn Brooks to read her poems at the Library of Congress Poetry Festival in 1962. From then to now, she received many awards, fellowships, and honorary degrees for her admired poems. (Kenny Jackson Williams, www.english.uiuc.edu)

Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most influential and successful poets. Some of her most successful and most selling books include //Maud Martha// (1953), //Bronzeville Boys and Girls// (1956), and //In the Mecca// (1968). Some of famous poems are //We Real Cool, Ballad of Rudolph Reed,// and //The Boy That Died in My Alley.// Most of her poems were toward the younger crowds to convince them to keep reading and writing. She hoped to have the kids to follow her foot steps just like how she followed other poets foot steps such as E.E. Cummings. (Kenny Jackson Williams, www.english.uiuc.edu)