One For The Road: Happy Birthday, Poet Gwendolyn Brooks
By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 7, 2012 10:40PM
Poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who died in 2000, was born on this date in 1917. Brooks was born in Topeka, Kan., but her family moved to Chicago when she was six years old. At 17, Brooks was submitting her work to be published in the poetry column of the Chicago Defender. Her first book of poetry A Street in Bronzeville was published in 1945.
Brooks was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.
Listen to Brooks explain her poem "We Real Cool" below, in this audio from 1983.