“My mother took me to the library when I was about four or five. I enjoyed reading poetry and I tried to write it when I was about seven, at the time that I first tried to put rhymes together. And I have loved it ever since.”
VOICE TWO:
Gwendolyn Brooks married Henry L. Blakely in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. Henry Blakely was a young writer who later published his own poetry. They lived in Chicago for the next thirty years, divorced in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, but re-united in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. They had two children, Nora Brooks Blakely and Henry Blakely.
Throughout her life, Mizz Brooks supported herself through speaking appearances, poetry readings and part time teaching in colleges. She also received money from organizations that offered grants designed to support the arts.
VOICE ONE:
One of Gwendolyn Brooks most famous poems is called “We Real Cool”. It is a short poem that talks about young people feeling hopeless:
We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.
VOICE TWO:
By the end of the Nineteen-Sixties, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues. She won praise for her sharper, real-life poetic style.
Gwendolyn Brooks was affected by the civil rights struggles and social changes taking place in America. She began to question her relations with whites. She said she felt that black poets should write for black people.
That became evident in her next collection of poetry in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight called “In the Mecca.” Critics suggested Mizz Brooks had become too political and seemed to be writing only for black people. Her new poems received little notice in the press.
VOICE ONE:
In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks’ described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, “Corners on the Curving Sky”:
Our earth is round, and, among other things
That means that you and I can hold completely different
Points of view and both be right.
The difference of our positions will show
Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine.
Your sky may burn with light,
While mine, at the same moment,
Spreads beautiful to darkness.
Still, we must choose how we separately corner
The circling universe of our experience
Once chosen, our cornering will determine
The message of any star and darkness we encounter.
VOICE TWO:
Although her poetry did not receive much notice in the press, Gwendolyn Brooks continued to receive honors. She was chosen poet laureate of the state of Illinois in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she became the first black woman to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. And she was named the Nineteen-Ninety-Four Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That is the highest honor given by the federal government for work in the humanities.
Mizz Brooks once said that of all the awards she received, there was only one that meant a lot to her. It was given to her at a workshop in an old theater in Chicago. She said: “I was given an award for just being me, and that’s what poetry is to me – just being me.”
VOICE ONE:
Although she was well-known, Gwendolyn Brooks lived a quiet life. She said her greatest interest was being involved with young people. She spent time giving readings at schools, prisons and hospitals. She also attended yearly poetry competitions for Chicago children. She often paid for the awards given to the winners.
Haki Madhubuti directs the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Creative Writing and Black Literature at Chicago State University. He said Mizz Brooks felt children would help lead the way toward healing the wounds of the United States civil rights movement of the Nineteen-Sixties. One young student talked about how Mizz Brooks’ poetry affected her. She said that Gwendolyn Brooks’ writings influenced her to write down how she truly feel deep inside.
VOICE TWO:
Gwendolyn Brooks influenced many African-American writers. Friends say her prize-winning works also helped other black Americans to develop their own sense of identity and culture.
Doctors discovered Mizz Brooks had cancer in November, Two-Thousand. She died December Third at her home in Chicago. She was eighty-three.
The funeral service was held on the South Side, the same area of the city that had been a window for much of Mizz Brooks’s poetry. The service was at times filled with laughter. There were warm remembrances of a woman whose life and words had touched people forever. African drums sounded and dancers leaped.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
