Gwen in Montgomery

Books by Gwendolyn Brooks

In Montgomery and Other Poems / A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks (Kent) / A Street in Bronzeville (1945) / Selected Poems (1963) / In the Mecca (1968)

Riot (1969) / The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves (1970), Blacks (1987), and Children Coming Home (1992) / Maud Martha (1953)

Report from Part One: An Autobiography (1972) / Report from Part Two: Autobiography(1996) / Jump Bad: A New Chicago Anthology (1971).

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Reviews

In honor of the 86th anniversary of the birth of Gwendolyn Brooks, Third World Press is pleased to debut her final collection of poetry In Montgomery and Other Poems, on June 7, 2003 at this year's Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair 2003.

In Montgomery and Other Poems was the last volume of work that Gwendolyn Brooks meticulously labored over prior to her death in December of 2000. This collection of new and familiar poems highlights Ms. Brooks' ability to explore intimately the life of her characters. In the title poem, "In Montgomery," originally published in Ebony magazine in 1971, Ms. Brooks paints with words the articulations and conversations of individuals from a southern city who are challenged to confront the tumultuous events of the Civil Rights Movement. In Montgomery includes two additional epic poems -- "Winnie" and "In the Mecca." It also includes the entirety of Children Coming Home and newer poems by Brooks.

The launch of In Montgomery and Other Poems is complemented and further celebrated by the June 6, 2003 dedication and naming of the Illinois State Library in Springfield as the Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois State Library. Ms. Brooks served as the Illinois Poet Laureate from 1968 to 2000 and was also the first Black poet to win a Pulitzer prize, won for her second collection of poetry Annie Allen published in 1949.

Although the official release for In Montgomery is scheduled September 8, 2003, copies of this book will be available for sale throughout the weekend.

--Publisher

At any period, a survey of brooks' works will yield her dominant social concerns, raning from war and peace, the Civil Rights movement, the Black Rebellion, a sense of African heritage, and the welfare of women and children, to the need for courage and resistance. . . . Aiming to "call Black people to unity and pride, she has raised the communicative power of poetry to the rhetoric of music.

--D.H. Melham, "Afterword," Report from Part Two

Gwendolyn Brooks introduced and shared experiences . . . entrances to the lives of people you might, otherwise, never know. Gwendolyn, whether as manic parent, literary midwife, or life mapper opened places for people -- new doorways and mindpaths. And, after all, isn't that what a mother is supposed to do?

--Nora Brooks Blakely, from "Three-Way Mirror"

Gwendolyn Brooks shares with Langston the achievement of being most responsive to turbulent changes in the black community's vision of itself and to the changing forms of its vibrations during decades of rapid change. The depth of her responsiveness and her range of poetic resources make her one of the most distinguished poets to appear in America in the 20th century.

-- George Kent, Blackness and the Adventure of Western Culture

As in music, as in griots singing, as in language mastered and matured beyond melodic roots, Gwendolyn brooks in her poetry gave us the ivory and vegetation of her people. With the publication of In Montgomery, we read the final poems of this seminal poet. The courage of her ideas, the deep quality of her Blacklove and whispered melody of each poem beckons us to remember that greatness, that this gentle poet walked and worked among us. She willed poetry into our lives with her constant and consistent meditations on her world.

Gwendolyn Brooks' poetry fed America, especially the minds of young people. However, her compelling acts of imagination and originality elicit smiles and shouts of affirmation from all of us. in this extraordinary new collection of poetry, we enter into brooks' final poetic landscape: prophetic, advocacy for Black life, fine toned lines, engaging insights, and most of all, captivating language.

Gwendolyn Brooks' voice rises to its own level of illumination. this book will open minds, cement her place in the "Canons," redefine her uniqueness, provoke new thought, and win new readers. With the wind in her hand, as in trumpeter blowing, as in poet singing, as in sister of her people and master of the language, let us gladly receive this book, it is indeed her final musical heartbeat, harvest, and citation.

Haki R. Madhubuti, Poet, Distinguished University professor and founder and director emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at Chicago State University

Source: In Montgomery and Other Poems (2003)

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Literary Production

Poetry

    A Street in Bronzeville (1945)
    Annie Allen (1949)
    Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956)
    The Bean Eaters (1960)
    Selected Poems (1963)
    We Real Cool (1966)
    The Wall (1967)
    In the Mecca (1968)
    Family Pictures (1970)
    Riot (1970)
    Black Steel: Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali (1971)
    The World of Gwendolyn Brooks (1971)
    Aloneness (1971)
    Aurora (1972)
    Beckonings (1975)
    Black Love (1981)
    To Disembark (1981)
    The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1986)
    Blacks (1987)
    Winnie (1988)