Gwendolyn Brooks: A Poet's Work in the Community

Gwendolyn Brooks: A Poet's Work in the Community opened at the Morgan Library on January 28 and will be on view through June 5, 2022.Comprising more than forty manuscripts, broadsides, and first editions, the exhibition explores Brooks’s roles as a poet, teacher, mentor, and community leader. The exhibition traces the effect of the resulting relationships on her work and the work of other creatives, such as Dudley Randall, Sonia Sanchez, and Jeff Donaldson. It takes us through the story of Brooks as a young poet, her early published poetry and establishes her relationship with the Black arts and publishing communities of the 1960s and ’70s. We learn of her contributions as a mentor to future writers through her children’s books and self-published guides for young poets. Nic Caldwell's exhibition  comes at an important moment in our collective history, providing us with a blueprint for building community as an essential part of creative growth.The Poetry Project Thank you to the Poetry Project for allowing us to use the recording of Gwendolyn Brooks reading at  The Poetry Project in 1981. The  program included   Ntozake Shange, the American playwright and poet. best known for her play   For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The reading was just after the premiere. Library of AmericaEdward Hirsch's essay on Gwendolyn Brooks can be found in The Heart of American Poetry, published by Library of America.  Elizabeth Alexander edited wrote the introduction to The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks also published by Library of America.  DuSable Museum of African American HistoryStudent readersTimia McCoade is a senior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. This recording was arranged through Alwin Jones, chair, the English Department and director of the Fieldston Summer Academic Program.  Alex Waters is a technical producer for the Short Fuse Podcast. He is a music producer and a student at the  Berklee College of Music. He has written and produced music and edited for podcasts including  The Faith and Chai Podcast and Con Confianza. Alex writes, produces and records music for independent artists, including The Living.  He lives in Brooklyn can can be reached at:  [email protected]