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Article: Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000).(African American poet eulogized)(Brief Article)(Obituary)(Poem)
- Article from:
- Black Issues in Higher Education
- Article date:
- December 21, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Cox, Matthews & Associates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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An ocean closed in on us Sunday, December 3, 2000, at exactly 2:30 p.m. Chicago time. Gwendolyn Brooks who could not swim, but loved the water, made her transition holding the hands of her beloved daughter and loved ones in her home over-looking Lake Michigan. For most writers and readers who turned to her work, she was the melody in our music. Ms. Brooks was a poet who embraced language as if she owned it. In her small and delicate hands, she expanded language to where it included the Black side of life. When she published her first book, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), Africans in America ceased being an after-thought or a question mark in the poetry of America.
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