Gwendolyn Brooks reads two classic poems: "The Mother" and "We Real Cool".In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her second book, Annie Allen, which, like her acclaimed first book, A Street in Bronzeville, contained carefully crafted observations of Black life in her native Chicago. In the 1960s, Brooks became highly influenced by the Black Arts Movement and started publishing only with Black-owned publishing companies. Brooks was named Poet Laureate in 1985.
