This Video On Gwendolyn Brooks' 'We Real Cool' Is Chicago As Hell
By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 7, 2017 7:23PM
You probably read Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool" in school. It's a heavily anthologized poem, which Brooks herself notes in the clip above, released Tuesday by the Poetry Foundation. Though Brooks passed away in 2000, her voice is very much alive in the video, thanks to archived audio footage: She introduces her most famous poem and her reason for writing it, then reads it as its meant to be read, over Chicago scenes and memories acted out by paper puppetry.
This video is just one piece of how the Poetry Foundation is honoring Brooks' centennial this year. (She was born one hundred years ago, in 1917.) They also commissioned a whole live stage production to honor the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet: "No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks," which premieres in November.
This video is a companion to that longer, forthcoming production—but what struck us most about it was that it's Chicago as hell. Here are six ties between the video above and our fair city.
1. Gwendolyn Brooks herself: Brooks spent almost her entire life here, and there's even a magnet school in Chicagoland named after her: Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep.
2. The Poetry Foundation: The foundation, which put out the video, is Chicago-based—their offices are right on Superior Street.
3. Manual Cinema!: This Chicago-based collective did the visuals for the video. At this point, they've really made a name for themselves, bringing an inventive, analog feel to cinema with puppets, projections, livestreams and live music (among many other things). They've worked with big names like Pop-Up Magazine and NPR's Invisibilia podcast—and now, Gwendolyn Brooks (kind of)!
4. Eve Ewing: She collaborated with poet Nate Marshall on the video's story, and she's a true Chicago gem: a sociologist, essayist, poet, and general polymath with one of the essential Chicago Twitter feeds. If you live here and don't follow her, start. She tweets everything from Chicago Public School news to this viral jokes I don't want to spoil.
5. Jamila Woods: She worked on the music for this video, and you might recognize her voice from her collaborations with Chance the Rapper. She sings on "Blessings," and he's featured on her forthcoming single, "LSD" (a track so Chicago they're looking to work with CPS students on the video!).
6. The video's setting: You probably noticed the El zooming by, or, the sign for the Chicago Public Library, or, you know, this insanely Chicago still:
