On The Shoulders of Giants
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Trustees
    • Joseph Ward - OTSOG Author
  • Non-Profit Programs
  • World Giants
    • Giants of Africa
    • Giants of Asia
    • Giants of North America
    • Giants of Europe
    • Giants of Oceania (Australia)
    • Giants of South America
  • Contact
  • Store
  • On the Shoulders of Giants Volume 4 The Caribbean

11/24/2014

Gwendolyn Brooks

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
​On June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas the great Gwendolyn Brooks was born. She was the first child of David and Keziah Brooks. At just six weeks old, during the great migration, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois. During her grade school career Gwendolyn attended three different high schools Hyde Park a top white high school, Wendell Phillips an all-black school, and   Englewood High School. She also began her career as writer and published her first poem “Eventide”, which was published in American Childhood Magazine. This feat was accomplished by the age of 13. Gwendolyn was highly influenced by James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, after meeting them she was encouraged to read modern poetry and write every day. Within the next three years she published at least 100 poems as an adjunct member of the Chicago Defender.

After graduating high school she attended Wilson Junior College, which she graduated in 1936. Her early school experiences helped mold her into a great writer. In 1938 Gwendolyn became involved with a group of writers who wrote for Harriet Monroe’s still-extant Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, she also married Henry Blakely and by 1951 they had two children, Henry, Jr. and Nora. In 1943 she won the Midwestern Writers Conference Poetry Award. In 1945 she became an award winning author with her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville, which immediately brought her critical acclaim and she was later selected as one of Mademoiselle Magazine’s “Ten Young Women of the Year”. She also won her first Guggenheim Fellowship, and became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1949 she published her second book of poems, Annie Allen, which won Poetry Magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize. In 1950 she received the Pulitzer Prize and became the first African America to win the award. Gwendolyn continued to pile up awards until she died; she even managed to receive an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters.

In 1962 Gwendolyn Brooks was invited to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival by President John F. Kennedy. Later in 1985 she was appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. In 1994 Gwendolyn was selected by National Endowment for the Humanities as the Jefferson Lecturer; this award is the highest award given by the Federal Government in humanities. She began teaching in 1963 at a poetry workshop at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. She also taught creative writing at a plethora of schools such as; Northeastern Illinois University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, Clay College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin. In 1967 Brooks awakened the activist in her business life and in her personal life; she attended the Second Black Writers’ Conference and was inspired to become a part of the Black Arts Movement. She became a visible and powerful ally for the Black Arts Movement; she also broke loose from major publishing companies to black owned publishing companies. Critics say her writing also took on a different tone as she became more of a leader in the movement. Gwendolyn died December 3, 2000 of cancer in Chicago, Illinois. She was a dedicated Chicagoan, writer and champion for African equality in the Arts. Gwendolyn was a success from her first piece of writing until her death. Miss Gwendolyn Brooks, we stand on your shoulders.

J.A. Ward.

Click below to view the Gwendolyn Brooks video

Share

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Details

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Asia
    Europe
    North America
    Oceania (Australia)
    South America

    RSS Feed

    Click Here to join our mailing list

Contact Us:

Phone:
850-363-1516

Email: mail@ontheshoulders.org

Mailing Address:
​P.O. Box 5442 
Tallahassee, FL 32314

Connect With Us


Picture
Buy Now
Picture
Buy Now
Picture
Buy Now
Picture
Available Now!!!
Site powered by PIT Web Design
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Trustees
    • Joseph Ward - OTSOG Author
  • Non-Profit Programs
  • World Giants
    • Giants of Africa
    • Giants of Asia
    • Giants of North America
    • Giants of Europe
    • Giants of Oceania (Australia)
    • Giants of South America
  • Contact
  • Store
  • On the Shoulders of Giants Volume 4 The Caribbean