"Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words."

Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize. She is best known for her sensitive portraits of urban blacks who encounter racism and poverty in their daily lives. Living on the Southside of Chicago, she engaged with the group of writers associated with Harriet Monroe’s Poetry, the most prestigious magazine in American poetry. Her first volume of poems, A Street in Bronzeville, appeared in 1945, published by Harper and Row. Her second book, Annie Allen, was awarded the Eunice Tiejens Prize, offered by Poetry Magazine. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950, becoming the first African American woman to win that prize. Brooks began a teaching career in 1963, conducting poetry workshops at Chicago’s Columbia College. She has also taught poetry writing at Northeastern Illinois University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, and the University of Wisconsin.

"We Real Cool"
(The Pool Players. / Seven at the Golden Shovel)

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

ASSIGNMENT: In a brief reflection, explore what a character from the poem might be like today, fifty years after the poem was written.