Collection

Gwendolyn Brooks: A Chicago Legacy

A collection on the work and impact of a legendary poet

Tyrue "Slang" Jones, “Through the Words of Miss Brooks,” 2017.

Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a social justice champion, is the unofficial eternal poet laureate of Chicago. As one of the most popular and widely-read poets of her generation and of Chicago's history, Brooks has influenced countless writers, readers, and activists since publishing her first poem at the age of 13.

Brooks was a community poet who left major publishing houses in order to work and publish with smaller Black-led presses, including Chicago's Third World Press and Broadside Press. The books published with these presses, including Blacks (1987), which spans more than 30 years of Brooks's work and features the title poem from her 1950 Pulitzer Prize–winning Annie Allen, form the backbone of Brooks's lasting legacy and demonstrate her stated commitment to "poems that will be non-compromising."

The Poetry Foundation compiled this selection of online resources in celebration of Brooks and of the 2023 program One Poem, One Chicago, a collaboration with the Chicago Public Library, Third World Press, Brooks Permissions, and Northwestern University Press.

Essential Resources And One Poem, One Chicago

- Gwendolyn Brooks
Author biography
- Gwendolyn Brooks: Selections
  Sarah Alcaide-Escue
- One Poem, One Chicago Invites City to Celebrate Its Poetic Lineage
- Poetry June 2017, dedicated to Gwendolyn Brooks's centenntial

Poems, Guides, And Educational Resources

- From the magazine:
  We Real Cool
  Gwendolyn Brooks
- 'It's Got a Backbeat, You Can't Lose It': The Rhythm of 'We Real Cool'
  Matthew Yeager
- the mother
  Gwendolyn Brooks
- Gwendolyn Brooks: “the mother”
  Annie Finch
- Riot
  Gwendolyn Brooks
- Not Detainable: A discussion of Gwendolyn Brooks’s “Riot”
- kitchenette building
  Gwendolyn Brooks
- Gwendolyn Brooks: “kitchenette building”
  Hannah Brooks-Motl
- truth
  Gwendolyn Brooks
- After the Night Years: On "The Sun Came" by Etheridge Knight and "Truth" by Gwendolyn Brooks
- From the magazine:
  The Bean Eaters
  Gwendolyn Brooks
- Experience, Experiment
  Patricia Spears Jones

Videos And no Blue Memories

No Blue Memories is a uniquely staged retelling of Brooks’s life using simple, illuminative, paper-cut puppetry by Manual Cinema. Written by Chicago poets Eve L. Ewing and Nate Marshall, the performance features music composed by Jamila Woods and Ayanna Woods.

From The 2017 Centennial Celebration Of Gwendolyn Brooks

Best known for her shorter lyrics, such as “We Real Cool”—a poem that first appeared in Poetry magazine in 1959—Brooks produced a prolific body of work in her lifetime, ranging from meditations on mass riots to experimental fiction. The following articles, poems, and audio resources commemorate the centenary of one of the most beloved and respected United States poets.

- Gwendolyn Brooks at 100
  The Editors
- Exhibit: Matter in the Margins: Gwendolyn Brooks at 100
- From the magazine:
  Introduction: June 2017
  Don Share
- Poems That Listen: A Celebration of Gwendolyn Brooks’s Centennial
  Quraysh Ali Lansana
- Gwendolyn Brooks at 100
  Cheryl Clarke
- From the magazine:
  Brooks’s Prosody: Three Sermons on the Warpland
  Carl Phillips
- From the magazine:
  The Eros in Democracy
  Meghan O’Rourke
- From the magazine:
  “Velvety Velour” and Other Sonnet Textures
  Christina Pugh
- From the magazine:
  From “A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun”
  Angela Jackson
- From the magazine:
  Family Pictures, Old & New
  Adrian Matejka

Tributes To Gwendolyn Brooks

- The Sun Came
  Etheridge Knight
- No Complaints
  Nikki Giovanni
- From the magazine:
  For Gwen Brooks
  Carolyn Marie Rodgers
- Quality: Gwendolyn Brooks at 73
  Haki R. Madhubuti
- From the magazine:
  Gwendolyn Brooks Visits Russia in 1982 (Version II)
  Angela Jackson

On Golden Shovels

Terrance Hayes famously developed a new poetic form as an excavation of Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool" and called it the Golden Shovel. Read from 2016's Poetry folio on the form alongside newer examples.

- From the magazine:
  Introduction: The Golden Shovel
  Don Share
- Golden Shovel - Glossary Term
- The Golden Shovel
  Terrance Hayes
- From the magazine:
  A Financial Planner Asks About My Goals, or Golden Shovel with Cardi B’s “Money”
  Kemi Alabi
- From the magazine:
  Golden Shovel: Our Faithfulness
  Sharon Olds

Audio And Podcasts

Prose On Brooks

- From the magazine:
  The Roads Taken
  Haki R. Madhubuti
- From the magazine:
  Gwendolyn Brooks
  Patricia Smith
- From the magazine:
  Sweet Bombs
  Danielle Chapman
- Just as Bronze: Memories of the West Side & Gwendolyn Brooks
  Patricia Smith
- From the magazine:
  Mundane and Plural
  David Baker
- From the magazine:
  Art, Artifice, and Artifact
  Quraysh Ali Lansana
- Lights and Shadows
  Delaney Hall
- Sundays in Satin: The Eloquence of Gwendolyn Brooks
  Afaa Michael Weaver
- Against Miracles
  Evie Shockley
- An Exceeding Sun: Michael Anania on Gwendolyn Brooks
  Simone Muench
- Chasing Ms. Brooks
  Randall Horton
- Snapshots in a Family Album: Maud Martha, a Poet’s Narrative
  Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Other Resources

- Brooks Day
Celebrated annually on June 7th
- Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards
- The Black Arts Movement Collection

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:We Real Cool

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:The Bean Eaters

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Introduction: June 2017

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Brooks’s Prosody: Three Sermons on the Warpland

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:The Eros in Democracy

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:“Velvety Velour” and Other Sonnet Textures

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:From “A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun”

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Family Pictures, Old & New

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:For Gwen Brooks

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Gwendolyn Brooks Visits Russia in 1982 (Version II)

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Introduction: The Golden Shovel

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:A Financial Planner Asks About My Goals, or Golden Shovel with Cardi B’s “Money”

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Golden Shovel: Our Faithfulness

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:The Roads Taken

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Gwendolyn Brooks

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Sweet Bombs

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Mundane and Plural

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Art, Artifice, and Artifact

From the magazine:
We Real Cool

From the magazine:
The Bean Eaters

From the magazine:
Introduction: June 2017

From the magazine:
Brooks’s Prosody: Three Sermons on the Warpland

From the magazine:
The Eros in Democracy

From the magazine:
“Velvety Velour” and Other Sonnet Textures

From the magazine:
From “A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun”

From the magazine:
Family Pictures, Old & New

From the magazine:
For Gwen Brooks

From the magazine:
Gwendolyn Brooks Visits Russia in 1982 (Version II)

From the magazine:
Introduction: The Golden Shovel

From the magazine:
A Financial Planner Asks About My Goals, or Golden Shovel with Cardi B’s “Money”

From the magazine:
Golden Shovel: Our Faithfulness

From the magazine:
The Roads Taken

From the magazine:
Gwendolyn Brooks

From the magazine:
Sweet Bombs

From the magazine:
Mundane and Plural

From the magazine:
Art, Artifice, and Artifact