Gwendolyn Brooks was a groundbreaking American poet whose work captured the joys, struggles, and beauty of Black life, particularly in Chicago’s South Side community of Bronzeville. Born in 1917, she began writing poetry at a young age and published her first poem at 13. Her 1949 collection, Annie Allen, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, making her the first African American to receive the honor. Brooks’s writing was celebrated for its technical mastery and emotional depth, exploring themes of racial identity, poverty, motherhood, and resilience. Deeply rooted in community, she engaged directly with young writers and activists during the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements, later serving as Illinois’ poet laureate and the Poet Laureate of the United States. Her work, including We Real Cool and The Bean Eaters, remains vital and influential. Brooks used poetry not only as an art form, but as a means of bearing witness and inspiring change.
The Joy Trip Project celebrates American History.
The Unhidden Minute is part of the Unhidden Podcast Project supported through a National Geographic Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society, with the cooperation of the National Park Service. This series aims to elevate the untold stories of Black Americans who are too often left out of the stories share about our common national heritage.
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