Gwendolyn Brooks
(1917-2000)
Brooks was born in Kansas but spent her childhood and adult life in Chicago, Illinois. Brooks wrote plays and poems; “Eventide” was her first published poem, appearing in Childhood Magazine in 1930. Dozens of her poems were published in The Chicago Defender (thanks to Paul Laurence Dunbar). After she graduated from college in 1938 she worked largely as a typist. She wrote about the life she knew - Chicago’s South Side ghettos, inner-city settings such as kitchenettes and pool halls. Poetry became her biggest tool during the Civil Rights Movement, writing about shakers and movers at the time. Her poem “Riders of the Blood-Red Wrath” honored the Freedom Riders, who integrated public transportation. In 1962, she was invited by President John F. Kennedy to read at a Library of Congress festival on poetry. She was named poet laureate of Illinois in 1968 and used the position to promote public appreciation of poetry. In 1985, she became poet laureate consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress (the position that later became national poet laureate). In 1995, Brooks received the National Medal of Arts. Later in her life her writings took on a more political tilt - fighting social injustices with her pen.
