Poet and pioneer Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (1917–2000) gave voice to the rhythms, struggles, and hopes of her community. Born in Topeka, Kansas and raised in Chicago, she became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize, honored for her 1950 poetry collection Annie Allen.

“Be careful what you swallow,” she once wrote. “Chew.”

With sonnets, ballads, and free verse, Brooks captured what it meant to be Black and female in America. Her work radiated empathy and insight, echoing the real-life music of inner-city streets. One of her most iconic poems begins:
“We real cool. We left school / We lurk late / We strike straight... We die soon.”

Pow! Her verse was that sharp.

Radical in later life, Brooks carried a mission: to reflect her community not with pity, but with power. “Artistic excellence doesn't come by trying to be above the conditions of the Black ghetto,” she said, “but by raising the level where the condition usually is perceived.”

She inspired others to hope, dream, and write. She believed in the depth of language, saying, “A little more should be required of the poet than perhaps is required of the sculptor or painter.” The challenge? To make familiar words mean something new. Something real.

“Writing is a delicious agony,” she said. “Poetry is life distilled.”