Address: 7428 S. Evans Ave. Year Built:
circa 1890
Architect:
Unknown
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark:
February 10, 2010
Prolific author and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Gwendolyn Brooks resided in this Chicago home from 1953 to 1994. A dominant figure of 20th-century American poetry and a leading force in the Chicago Black Renaissance literary movement from the 1930s thru the 1950s, Brooks is regarded by literary critics as one of the United States' most significant poets. Her first collection of poems, A Street in Bronzeville, appeared in 1945 and was followed by other major works including Annie Allen in 1949. In 1950, Brooks became the first African American in history to win a Pulitzer Prize; in 1985, she was named Poet Laureate of the State of Illinois. For over seven decades, the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks provided personal and communal insight into the desire and disillusionment, humor and injustice of African American life experiences on Chicago's South Side.
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