Gwendolyn Brooks Research Paper

Ruby Bridges was one of the first heroic African Americans to enter an all white elementary school in New Orleans in 1966. She was a brave, little girl who was escorted to school by the U.S. Marshalls. The teachers and protesters said vulgarities things to ruby, and treated her like an outcast. Ruby demonstrated bravery even though she was ostracized, threatened, and surrounded by racists.

Gwendolyn is characterized as someone who believes fashion comes before morals and everything one does should be fashionable, no matter what their class is. ‘Cake is rarely seen in the best houses nowadays.’ Gwendolyn shows

Ruby Bridges, the first African American to go to a white school, she was as brave as a person going into the army. There were death threats to Ruby’s family and in the army you fight and have a chance to die. When Ruby went to this white school federal marshals had to guard her because the riots were so bad. After analyzing several online biographies, Ruby was very brave and wanted to change the way the world looks at race, and she has changed the way the world looks at race.

One way that Gwendolyn Bennett influenced Harlem Renaissance and future generations was through empowering education. An example of this was through helping with the development and serving on the board at the George Washington Carver School. This school was an ”adult education center oriented toward blacks in Harlem who could not meet the academic standards or the high tuition fees required by other New York institutions.”(“New York

Gwendolyn brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas. Her family moved to Chicago during the great migration when Brooks was six weeks old. Her first poem was published when she was 13 and at the age of 17, she already had a series of poems published in the poetry column “Lights and shadows” in the Chicago defender newspaper. . After working for The NAACP, she began to write poems that focus on urban poor blacks. Those poems were later published as a collection in 1945. The collection was titled A Street in Bronzeville. A street in bronzeville received critical acclaim but it was her next work, Annie Allen, that was got her the Pulitzer Prize. She lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000 at age of 83.

Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks are regarded as highly influential poets in African American literature, which continues to inspire writers to this day. Langston Hughes is a well-known pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement in which African Americans in Harlem during post World War I and the early 1930’s began a cultural and artistic revolution. During this time, African American musicians, artists, writers, and poets revolutionized their position in and through many artistic fields of expression. This cultural and artistic revolution redefined how America viewed the African American population, which garnered respect and criticism from Americans nationwide. Gwendolyn Brooks, an African American poet also in the 19th century, was introduced to Langston Hughes at a young age peeking her interest in the Harlem Renaissance that eventually became a foundation and influence in her writing. Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes share similarities in the writing as she was highly inspired by Langston Hughes, but also share many differences that are responsible for making their pieces of writing unique to other authors and each other.

Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. She has also received a lot of awards and fellowships throughout her life. Born in 1917, she started her writing career in poetry at an early age, publishing her first poem in 1930. 1967 was a turning point in her career as it was in this year that she attended the Fisk University Second Black Writers' Conference. In this conference, she has decided to involve herself in the Black Arts Movement. While awareness of social issues and elements of protest is found generally in all her works, some of her critics found in her work an angrier tone after joining the movement.

     Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the

There, she started to write at the age of seven and published her first poem at 13. After she completed school, Gwendolyn Brooks found herself working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and continued to write about the struggles of African Americans in her community. During Gwendolyn Brooks’s career she expanded the topic of her writings. Between 1940-1960’s, her writings were about the oppression of blacks and women of all colors in her community, and she poetically criticized the shocking prejudice that African Americans had for one another. However, during 1960’s she developed a new attitude, due to her growing political awareness. She began to expand her poetry from the day-to-day life of the African Americans in her community, to writing about the wider world and the racial struggles of African American people everywhere. She then brought back all of her accomplishments to her community by reading her poems to children at various venues. By the end of her life, she had inspired thousands of young

She was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas and died on December 3, 2000 in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up in this time period affected her work due to the strong historical events that took place; i.e. World War I, Great Depression, World War II. She wrote “We Real Cool” in the 1960’s. Gwendolyn Brooks, the author of “We Real Cool,” was an influential writer in the Contemporary Era, winning the undeniably-prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn Brooks in the poem was also trying to point out the negative effects that might happen to a youth if they choose to drop out out school and leave a life of crime.

She wrote a short novel called 'Maud Martha', based on young black girl growing up in Chicago. In the 1980's she taught at colleges and universities in Illinois and Wisconsin and she basically helped young black poets with their poetry (McMichael and Leonard). Also, In 1930's Brooks earned her associate degree in literature and arts from Wilson Junior College, and she also served as a director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People youth council in Chicago. Brooks early poetry was about economics, racial issues and ordinary people. (Israel).

Gwendolyn Brooks and Audre Lorde, both activist of the Black Arts Movement made their own personal path to speak their truth. Gwendolyn Brooks known to the world for her poem “We Real Cool”. This

Published first during the decade of the 1990s "The Boy Died in My Alley" remains a significant poem of Gwendolyn Brooks as she moves from traditional forms of poetry such as sonnets, ballads to the most unrestrictive free verse and includes the sad rhythm of the blues. This poem offers an amazing juxtaposition of dramatic poetic forms, narrative, and lyric (Guth & Rico). The story is most often simple but with the last line, they transcend the restriction of place and cover universal plight. Most often the characters of the people are memorable only due to fact that they are trying to survive the trials and tribulations of daily living. For example, in the poem, “The Boy Died in My Alley”, the author narrates an incident when a black boy is murdered in her back alley and the policeman asks her whether she has heard the shot. As she was passionate about the bad experiences of black community in the United States, her poetry is mainly about their plight in the society (Guth & Rico). The main focus of the poem, "The Boy Died in My Alley" is to study and analyze the reasons behind the violence that is associated with African-American children who live on the street.

Gwendolyn Brooks was a prominent poem during her time, receiving a Pulitzer Prize for her poem Annie Allen in 1950. She was also the first African-American woman to serve as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and in 1968 was named Illinois’ poet laureate. Brooks lived in Chicago’s south side for most of her life, and its Bronzeville neighborhood was featured in Brooks’ first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville. Brooke’s “kitchenette building” is closely related to her life because Chicago’s south side was filled with kitchenette buildings during that time period, most of which were overcrowded and had poor sanitary