Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry, poverty, and a Pulitzer prize
What Brooks taught the world about the beauty of community and being a black woman in America
Gwendolyn Brooks is an earthy, plainspoken, unpretentious American legend. She won countless awards including a Pulitzer prize and is known around the globe as Chicago’s First Lady of Poetry. She is a big deal. But more valuable than that, she was a teacher who shared her love of poetry with anyone — especially any child — who asked.
Let’s learn more about what made this poet so extraordinary.
Don’t want to read? Listen to this story and hear a reading of “my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell” on the tiff loves words podcast.
A young poet
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. At just six weeks old, her mother Keziah, who was a school teacher, and her father, David, who was a janitor and aspiring doctor moved the family to Chicago. They settled in Chicago’s South Side, in what is now known as the Black Metropolis–Bronzeville Historic District.
The following year, Gwendolyn’s younger brother Raymond was born. Both children had a strong relationship with their parents. Brooks said her father would often sing to them and her…
