Increased the use of her vernacular (a language spoken by people of a Traditional poetic forms, Brooks now favored free verse.

These works are much more direct and are designed to increase The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves: Or, What You Are You Are (1971), the autobiographical (description of her own life) Witnessing the strong spirit of several young African American authorsĪt the Second Black Writers' Conference held at Fisk University. This change can be traced to her growing political awareness, To a more simple writing style so that her themes could come across more In 1967 Brooks's work achieved a new tone and vision. In many of these works she criticized the prejudice thatĪfrican American people have toward one another by calling attention to Women, some of them require close reading to uncover their true (cruel exercise of power against a particular group) of blacks and Although these poems speak out against the oppression Critics labeled her early work as intellectualĪnd scholarly. Them she used a strict technical form, lofty word choice, andĬomplicated word play. Other poetry collections includedīrooks's work from this period contains descriptions mostly ofĪfrican American people involved in their day-to-day city activities. Poetry, becoming the first African American to be granted this honor. In 1950 Brooks was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry when the children were asleep or later while they were in school. Blakeley, another young writer,Īnd together they would raise two children. Poetry readings and workshops at Chicago's South Side CommunityĪrt Center, producing verse that would appear in her first published By the age of sixteen she had written overĪfter graduating from Wilson Junior College in 1936, Brooks worked asĭirector of publicity for a youth organization of the NationalĪssociation for the Advancement of Colored People. (1902–1967), well-known writers with whom she beganĪttended in Chicago. She received compliments on her poems and encouragementįrom James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and Langston Hughes She became known to her family and friends as 'theįemale Paul Lawrence Dunbar' (1872– 1906 a famous AfricanĪmerican poet).

Or athletic abilities, a light skin, and good grade hair.'īrooks was deeply hurt by this rejection and spent most of her childhood Was 'spurned by members of her own race because she lacked social Her parents often read to her and encouraged her toĭo well in school, but she was a shy girl. Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas, the eldestĬhild of Keziah (Wims) Brooks, a schoolteacher, and David Andersonīrooks, a janitor, who, because he lacked the funds to finish school,ĭid not achieve his dream of becoming a doctor.

Facts about gwendolyn brooks