Weekend Writing: Celebrating Gwendolyn Brooks
If Gwendolyn Brooks was still living today, what would she be writing about? She would probably join countless other poets in writing beautiful, powerful poems about the current Black Lives Matter movement. She would be a leading voice.
She was a leading voice, one of the most highly regarded, influential poets of the 20th century. She reflected on American culture, especially during the 1960s. She was committed to presenting a racial identity in her poetry, representing the civil rights movement in her work. Because of this, we thank her today.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks (photo/Britannica) |
I'm featuring her today on the blog in honor of her birthday. She was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas. She was the first child of David Anderson and Keziah (Wims) Brooks. Her father was originally going to be a doctor, but he gave up this dream to get married and raise a family. Instead of being a doctor, he worked as a janitor for a music company. Meanwhile, her mother was a school teacher, as well as a concert pianist.
When Gwendolyn was just six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago and the city would be her home for the rest of her life. Gwendolyn attended a predominantly white high school before transferring to an all-black school, Wendell Phillips High School. She finally finished her education at an integrated school, Englewood High School. During her educational experience, Gwendolyn endured harsh racial injustice. This helped her gain an understanding of the prejudice and bias in many institutions, as well as the American mindset.
Gwendolyn began writing at a very young age. She was strongly encouraged to pursue writing by her mother. She began submitting her poetry as a teenager--publishing her first poem, "Eventide," in a children's magazine, American Childhood, when she was 13 years old. By the time she was 16, she had published 75 poems. When she graduated from high school in 1935, she was a frequent contributor to The Chicago Defender.
Gwendolyn didn't attend college because she wanted to be a writer. College would be a waste of time for her. She later said, "I am not a scholar. I'm just a writer who loves to write and will always write." Despite this belief, she attended a two-year program at Wilson Junior College, now known as Kennedy-King College, and graduated in 1936 to work as a typist in order to be financially stable to pursue a writing career.
Gwendolyn typically wrote ballads and sonnets, but she also wrote blues rhythms and free verse poetry. She attended poetry workshops and she was encouraged by writers James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, and Langston Hughes. They appreciated that the characters in her poems are drawn from her experiences in the inner city life of Chicago. It's always best to write about what you know, and Gwendolyn definitely followed this advice.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks (photo/Chicago Tonight - WTTW) |
In 1939, Gwendolyn married her husband, Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr. The couple met after joining Chicago's NAACP Youth Council. Together, they had two children: Henry Lowington Blakely III, and Nora Brooks Blakely. The couple was married until Henry's death in 1996.
By the 1940s, Gwendolyn found her voice and learned more about the best techniques for her poetry. In 1944, two of her poems were published in Poetry magazine. A year later, she published her first full-length book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville. The book was critically acclaimed for its realistic depiction of life in Bronzeville. The collection featured profound poems, including "kitchenette building" and "the mother," in which Gwendolyn reflected on the feelings of a mother who had abortions.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks with a copy of A Street in Bronzeville (photo/GPB News). |
In 1949, Gwendolyn published her second book of poetry, Annie Allen, which focused on the life and experiences for a young black girl growing up into a young woman. The book features more profound poems, including "The Womanhood." The book was awarded the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and it was also awarded Poetry magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize. In fact, she was the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize.
"We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond." - Gwendolyn Brooks
In 1953, Gwendolyn published her only narrative novella, Maud Martha. It contained 34 vignettes that followed the life of a black woman named Maud Martha Brown as she grew up into womanhood. She has many doubts about where she fits in the world. She suffers prejudice and discrimination, but not only from white individuals but from other blacks who have lighter skin tones than her. Critics say this is a reference to Gwendolyn's personal experience.
In 1960, Gwendolyn published The Bean Eaters, which contains some of her most famous poems, including "We Real Cool," "The Bean Eaters," "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till," "The Crazy Woman," and many others. These poems represented Gwendolyn's voice, evoking electric energy, and a call for action.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks' poem, "We Real Cool" (photo/Library of Congress Blogs). |
Gwendolyn published many other books and collections throughout her lifetime, including:
- Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956)
- In the Mecca (1968)
- For Illinois 1968: A Sesquicentennial Poem (1968)
- Riot (1969)
- Family Pictures (1970)
- Aloneness (1971)
- Report from Part One: An Autobiography (1972)
- Black Love (1982)
- Mayor Harold Washington; and, Chicago, the I Will City (1983)
- The Near-Johannesburg Boy, and Other Poems (1987)
- Winnie (1988)
- Report from Part Two (1996)
- In Montgomery, and Other Poems (2003)
Even reading these titles, it's evident that Gwendolyn reflected on the black experience in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. She met with activists and artists to engage in the new black cultural nationalism. She wrote raw, powerful poetry about political and cultural subjects other people might have been afraid to approach. But that wasn't Gwendolyn.
"I want to write poems that will be non-compromising. I don't want to stop a concern with words doing good jobs, which has always been a concern of mine, but I want to write poems that will be meaningful...things that will touch them." - Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn continued writing poetry and educating others with her powerful words until her death on December 3, 2000, at age 83. To this day, she is still regarded as one of the most accomplished and critically acclaimed poets of the 20th century. She was the first black woman to serve as a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. She devoted so much of her life to poetry and to inspiring others to strive for change.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks (photo/Chicago Tribune) |
She reflected on the experiences that spoke to her, and her words now speak to us. I'm confident that if Gwendolyn Brooks was still living today, she would be using her poetry to inspire change during the current Black Lives Matter movement.
But she's not here today. She's no longer an active participant, but we can still read her poetry. We can read her work and if we remove the dates, you would think that her poems were written today--in 2020. We still need to learn from her poetry and from her vision for change.
In the meantime, we can read poetry by today's contemporary black poets, including Kevin Young, Ross Gay, Morgan Parker, Amanda Johnston, Phillip B. Williams, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, Alysia Harris, Malcolm London, and many others. Read and support them.
We know Gwendolyn Brooks would support them.
-KJL-
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