Blacks

by Brooks, Gwendolyn

• ISBN13: 9780883781050
• ISBN10: 0883781050
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-06-01
• Publisher: Ingram Pub Services

Summary

Here is a necessary collection of poetry for admirers of words and treasurers of literary beauty. Spanning over 30 years, this collection of literary masterpieces by the venerable Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks, arguably Illinois' most beloved Poet Laureate and Chicago's elder Black literary stateswoman,Blacksincludes all of Ms. Brooks' critically acclaimed writings. Within its covers is the groundbreaking "Annie Allen," which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1950, making her the first Black to achieve that honor. There is also the sweepingly beautiful and finely crafted "A Street in Bronzeville," a highly anticipated and lauded poetic treasure that spoke volumes for this great poet's love of Black people, Chicago's Black community, and even the community of the world.Blacksincludes a special treat,Maud Martha, Brooks' only novel.

Author Biography

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize (1950). She was also the poetry consultant for the Library of Congress and the Poet Laureate of Illinois.

Table of Contents

A STREET IN BRONZEVILLE	17	(77)
A Street in Bronzeville the old-marrieds	19	(23)
kitchenette building	20	(1)
the mother	21	(2)
southeast corner	23	(1)
when Mrs. Martin's Booker T.	24	(1)
the soft man	25	(1)
the funeral	26	(1)
hunchback girl: she thinks of heaven	27	(1)
a song in the front yard	28	(1)
patent leather	29	(1)
the ballad of chocolate Mabbie	30	(1)
the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon	31	(1)
Sadie and Maud	32	(1)
the independent man	33	(1)
obituary for a living lady	34	(2)
when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story	36	(2)
the murder	38	(1)
of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery	39	(1)
Matthew Cole	40	(1)
the vacant lot	41	(1)
The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith	42	(6)
Negro Hero	48	(3)
Hattie Scott	51	(5)
the end of the day	51	(1)
the date	52	(1)
at the hairdresser's	53	(1)
when I die	54	(1)
the battle	55	(1)
Queen of the Blues	56	(4)
Ballad of Pearl May Lee	60	(4)
Gay Chaps at the Bar	64	(13)
gay chaps at the bar	64	(1)
``still do I keep my look, my identity...''	65	(1)
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell	66	(1)
looking	67	(1)
piano after war	68	(1)
mentors	69	(1)
the white troops had their orders but the Negroes looked like men	70	(1)
firstly inclined to take what it is told	71	(1)
``God works in a mysterious way''	72	(1)
love note I: surely	73	(1)
love note II: flags	74	(1)
the progress	75	(2)
ANNIE Allen	77	(64)
Memorial to Ed Bland	79	(2)
Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood	81	(16)
the birth in a narrow room	83	(1)
Maxie Allen	84	(2)
the parents: people like our marriage Maxie and Andrew	86	(1)
Sunday chicken	87	(1)
old relative	88	(1)
downtown vaudeville	89	(1)
the ballad of late Annie	90	(1)
throwing out the flowers	91	(1)
``do not be afraid of no''	92	(2)
``pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps''	94	(1)
my own sweet good	95	(2)
The Anniad	97	(16)
The Anniad	99	(11)
Appendix to The Anniad	110	(3)
leaves from a loose-leaf war diary	110	(2)
the sonnet-ballad	112	(1)
The Womanhood	113	(28)
the children of the poor	115	(5)
``Life for my child is simple, and is good''	120	(1)
the ballad of the light-eyed little girl	121	(2)
``A light and diplomatic bird''	123	(1)
old laughter	124	(1)
the rites for Cousin Vit	125	(1)
I love those little booths at Benvenuti's	126	(2)
Beverly Hills, Chicago	128	(2)
truth	130
``Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.''	115	(17)
``One wants a Teller in a time like this.''	132	(1)
beauty shoppe	133	(2)
intermission	135	(3)
``People protest in sprawling lightless ways''	138	(1)
``Men of careful turns, haters of forks in the road''	139	(2)
MAUD MARTHA	141	(182)
THE BEAN EATERS	323	(78)
The Explorer	327	(1)
My Little `Bout-town Gal	328	(1)
Strong Men, Riding Horses	329	(1)
The Bean Eaters	330	(1)
We Real Cool	331	(1)
Old Mary	332	(1)
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon	333	(7)
The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till	340	(1)
Mrs. Small	341	(3)
Jessie Mitchell's Mother	344	(2)
The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock	346	(3)
The Lovers of the Poor	349	(4)
A Sunset of the City	353	(2)
A Man of the Middle Class	355	(3)
Kid Bruin	358	(1)
The Ghost at the Quincy Club	359	(1)
The Crazy Woman	360	(1)
Pete at the Zoo	361	(1)
Bronzeville Man with a Belt in the Back	362	(1)
A Lovely Love	363	(1)
For Clarice It Is Terrible Because with This He Takes Away All the Popular Songs and the Moonlights and Still Night Hushes and the Movies with Star-eyed Girls and Simpering Males	364	(1)
Jack	365	(1)
A Penitent Considers Another Coming of Mary	366	(1)
Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat	367	(4)
The Contemplation of Suicide: The Temptation of Timothy	371	(1)
On the Occasion of the Open-air Formation of the Olde Tymers' Walking and Nature Club	372	(1)
Bessie of Bronzeville Visits Mary and Norman at a Beachhouse in New Buffalo	373	(1)
Naomi	374	(1)
Callie Ford	375	(1)
The Ballad of Rudolph Reed	376	(3)
Priscilla Assails the Sepulchre of Love	379	(1)
Leftist Orator in Washington Park Pleasantly Punishes the Gropers	380	(1)
The Artists' and Models' Ball	381	(1)
The Egg Boiler	382	(1)
In Emanuel's Nightmare: Another Coming of Christ	383	(4)
1963	387	(2)
Riders to the Blood-red Wrath	389	(4)
The Empty Woman	393	(1)
To Be in Love	394	(2)
Langston Hughes	396	(1)
A Catch of Shy Fish	397	(4)
garbageman: the man with the orderly mind	397	(1)
sick man looks at flowers	397	(1)
old people working (garden, car)	398	(1)
weaponed woman	398	(1)
old tennis player	398	(1)
a surrealist and Omega	399	(1)
Spaulding and Francois	399	(1)
Big Bessie throws her son into the street	400	(1)
IN THE MECCA	401	(111)
In the Mecca	403	(32)
After Mecca	435	(22)
To a Winter Squirrel	437	(1)
Boy Breaking Glass	438	(2)
Medgar Evers	440	(1)
Malcolm X	441	(1)
Two Dedications	442	(4)
The Chicago Picasso	442	(2)
The Wall	444	(2)
The Blackstone Rangers	446	(5)
As Seen by Disciplines	446	(1)
The Leaders	447	(2)
Gang Girls	449	(2)
The Sermon on the Warpland	451	(2)
The Second Sermon on the Warpland	453	(4)
from Primer for Blacks	457	(2)
To Those of My Sisters Who Kept Their Naturals	459	(2)
from Beckonings	461	(2)
Horses Graze	463	(2)
A Black Wedding Song	465	(2)
from To Disembark	467	(36)
Riot	469	(12)
Riot	470	(2)
The Third Sermon on the Warpland	472	(7)
An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire	479	(2)
Family Pictures	481	(18)
The Life of Lincoln West	482	(8)
Young Heroes I-III	490	(4)
Young Afrikans	494	(2)
Paul Robeson	496	(1)
Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward.	497	(2)
To The Diaspora	499	(4)
Music for Martyrs	500	(1)
A Welcome Song for Laini Nzinga	501	(1)
To Black Women	502	(1)
from The Near-Johannesburg Boy and other poems	503	(2)
Whitney Young	505	(1)
Tornado at Talladega	506	(1)
The Near-Johannesburg Boy	507	(1)
The Good Man	508	(4)
Infirm	512