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Gwendolyn Brooks
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From: Violet J. Harris <vjharris>
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:32:19 -0600
Pulitzer Prize winning Poet Gwendolyn Brooks, age 83, died in her Chicago home yesterday (Dec. 3). According to a report from Haki Madhubuti given to Trudier Harris, she was surrounded by friends and family and her transition was a good one. The funeral service will be in Chicago on Monday, Dec. 11 and a memorial service is planned for early January.
Many of you have probably read and enjoyed her poetry. It certainly was gratifying to see her canonized in anthologies. I was introduced to Ms. Brooks poetry as an elementary student and will always remember the profound effect of "We Real Cool." A cousin gave me a copy of Maud Martha while I was in high school and I became a devotee of Ms. Brooks for life. She literally believed in "taking poetry to the streets" and developed a loyal following among many in Illinois. She lived the revolutionary rhetoric of the Black Arts movement of the 1960's by leaving her long-term publisher, I believe, Harper & Row, for independent Black publishers such as Third World Press. Many were puzzled by her support of small presses but she remained steadfast in her support.
The shifting octaves of her voice always astounded me as I sat listening to her read poetry over the years. I hope she was recorded. The poetry she created over the past two decades captured a range of experiences of urban Blacks and she made those experiences universal.
She was the poet laureate of Illinois and made that position more than ceremonial. Each year, she sponsored a state-wide poetry contest for children and awarded prize money to the winners. That contest will be her living legacy. I hope you will read and share her works.
Received on Mon 04 Dec 2000 12:32:19 PM CST
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:32:19 -0600
Pulitzer Prize winning Poet Gwendolyn Brooks, age 83, died in her Chicago home yesterday (Dec. 3). According to a report from Haki Madhubuti given to Trudier Harris, she was surrounded by friends and family and her transition was a good one. The funeral service will be in Chicago on Monday, Dec. 11 and a memorial service is planned for early January.
Many of you have probably read and enjoyed her poetry. It certainly was gratifying to see her canonized in anthologies. I was introduced to Ms. Brooks poetry as an elementary student and will always remember the profound effect of "We Real Cool." A cousin gave me a copy of Maud Martha while I was in high school and I became a devotee of Ms. Brooks for life. She literally believed in "taking poetry to the streets" and developed a loyal following among many in Illinois. She lived the revolutionary rhetoric of the Black Arts movement of the 1960's by leaving her long-term publisher, I believe, Harper & Row, for independent Black publishers such as Third World Press. Many were puzzled by her support of small presses but she remained steadfast in her support.
The shifting octaves of her voice always astounded me as I sat listening to her read poetry over the years. I hope she was recorded. The poetry she created over the past two decades captured a range of experiences of urban Blacks and she made those experiences universal.
She was the poet laureate of Illinois and made that position more than ceremonial. Each year, she sponsored a state-wide poetry contest for children and awarded prize money to the winners. That contest will be her living legacy. I hope you will read and share her works.
Received on Mon 04 Dec 2000 12:32:19 PM CST
