Gwendolyn Brooks - A Great Black Poet

On June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, an amazing person was born. Gwendolyn Brooks was a black female poet who has inspired and touched many people who have read her poetry. Brooks was the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize Brooks began writing at age eleven and was first published at age fifteen. Throughout Gwendolyn Brooks’ works, she writes about racism, the lives of blacks, and her love for all people no matter what race …

…of black women and the problems they face. “Being both black and female, she projects a vision of the world, society, community, family, lovers, and herself through poetic personae”. Brooks wanted her poetry to reach out to people who did not usually read her type of writing. She wanted her poetry read by younger people, so she formed a workshop for younger writers. Sometimes Brooks makes her poems and stories pertain to her own life;