About Gwendolyn Brooks
She was the daughter of David Anderson Brooks and Keziah Wims Brooks. The family returned to their home in Chicago, Illinois a few weeks after Gwendolyn’s birth.
The first image of the picture of Gwendolyn at the age of 19 in the family’s backyard. The second picture loosely re-creates the feel of the backyard in Gwendolyn Brooks Park in Chicago. From left to right (Nora Brooks Blakely, President of Brooks Permissions; Margot McMahon, sculptor; Rana Segal, videographer of the documentary; Cynthia Walls, Vice president of Brooks Permissions)
Education and Impact
She graduated from Chicago’s Wilson Junior College (now Kennedy-King College). Over her lifetime she was awarded 70 honorary degrees. Succeeding Carl Sandburg, she was appointed Illinois Poet Laureate in 1968 by Governor Otto Kerner and remained in that position until her passing in 2000.
Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. Her work is intimate, measured, and never to be underestimated: it has opened the door for many young poets to the art form. At a nexus of multiple movements and generations, Brooks’ work and career addresses six decades of national and international themes with a particular focus on the Black community in the United States.
Publications
Her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville, was published in 1945. Her second book of poetry, Annie Allen, was published in 1949 and earned her the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry as well as recognition as the first Black person to ever win the Pulitzer in any category. Gwendolyn Brooks went on to publish many books, including additional poetry for adults and children, one novel, writing manuals and two volumes of autobiography. “We Real Cool,” her best-known poem, is from her 1960 work, The Bean Eaters. Her final book, In Montgomery and Other Poems, was published post-mortem in 2003 from a manuscript she prepared before her death.
Teaching
Ms. Brooks taught at several colleges and universities, including University of Wisconsin (Madison), City Colleges of New York, Columbia College of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Elmhurst College and Chicago State University.
Recognition
National awards and honors include her 1988 induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame; 1985 appointment as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (the position was then renamed U.S. Poet Laureate); member and awardee of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the Shelley Memorial Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Award (she was also a judge for many years); the Kuumba Liberation Award; two Guggenheim Fellowships (1946 and 1947); the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America, a National Book Award nomination for “In the Mecca;” the National Endowment for The Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. During her lifetime, she was the only American to receive the Society For Literature Award from the University of Tessaloniki, Athens, Greece (1990). In 1994 the National Endowment for the Humanities appointed her as the 23rd Jefferson Lecturer. In 2000, The Academy of American Poets awarded her its 65th Fellowship.
At least five schools in Illinois are named in her honor: 2 Gwendolyn Brooks Middle schools (Harvey, Oak Park); 2 Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary Schools (Aurora, DeKalb);
Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep Academy High School (Chicago). Several cultural centers, school libraries along with two parks (one in Chicago, Illinois; one in Topeka, Kansas) have also been named after Ms. Brooks. A signal honor: her name is engraved on the Illinois State Library in Springfield which was renamed the Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois State Library in June, 2003.
Family
She was married to Henry Blakely, businessman and author of “Windy Place,” and is the mother of Henry Blakely Jr., a former web designer and digital artist and Nora Brooks Blakely, a writer and arts administrator who founded Brooks Permissions with a commitment to providing licensing and Brooks-related programming and resources.
Works By Gwendolyn Brooks
Poetry
A Street in Bronzeville, 1945
Annie Allen, 1949
Bronzeville Boys and Girls, 1956
The Bean Eaters, 1960
Selected Poems, 1963, 2006 (posthumously)
We Real Cool, 1966
The Wall, 1967
In the Mecca, 1968
Riot, 1969
Family Pictures, 1970
Aloneness, 1971
The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves, 1974
Beckonings, 1975
To Disembark, 1981
Black Love, 1982
The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems, 1986
Blacks, 1987
Winnie, 1988
Gottschalk and the Grande Tarantelle, 1988
Children Coming Home, 1991
In Montgomery and Other Poems, 2003 (posthumously)
Also by Gwendolyn Brooks
A Broadside Treasury (editor), 1971
Jump Bad: A New Chicago Anthology (editor), 1971
Report from Part One, 1972
A Capsule Course in Black Poetry Writing, 1975
(with Don L. Lee Keorapetse Kgositsile and Dudley Randall)
Primer for Blacks, 1980
Young Poet’s Primer, 1981
Very Young Poets, 1983
Report from Part Two, 1995
About Brooks Permissions
Brooks Permissions, founded in 2001, manages the literary works of acclaimed poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
We are committed to shining a well-deserved and continuing spotlight on the legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks through projects and programming, licensing, and visibility.
The company has shared the works of Gwendolyn Brooks through its performing arts collective APG: The Aurora Performance Group; publications such as the most recent collection of her work, SEASONS: A Gwendolyn Brooks Experience; the illustrated poetry series, Graphic Gwendolyn; and this 75th anniversary edition of Annie Allen, which includes tribute poems and critical essays accompanying the original Pulitzer Prize-winning work by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Other Brooks Permissions programs and projects include Living Legacy, a global celebration of Black female poets in the tradition of Gwendolyn Brooks, and the GB7 series, an array of Brooks-related announcements, info packets, online programming and more on the 7th day of each month in honor of the day of Gwendolyn Brooks’ birth: June 7th, 1917.
Annually, the company processes numerous requests for Ms. Brooks’ works, collaborating with mainstream, educational, and independent publishers, as well as licensing individual artists for projects ranging from literary anthologies and academic course packs to lectures, theatrical performances, multimedia projects, and more.
Meet the Team
The staff of Brooks Permissions is committed to protecting and promoting the printed, audible and video recorded works of Gwendolyn Brooks. You can reach us at info@gwendolynbrooks.net, for additional information.
