Born in Topeka, Kansas, June 7, 1917, Gwendolyn Brooks was brought home to Chicago after her first few weeks of life. The first Black person to ever win the Pulitzer Prize (1950), she received over 70 honorary degrees and many other honors, including Poet Laureate of Illinois (30+ years) and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Ms. Brooks created and sponsored countless awards, herself. To date, five schools have been named after her, as well as the Illinois State Library Building and several other libraries, award programs and cultural centers. Nora Brooks Blakely is the former Producing Artistic Director and primary playwright for Chocolate Chips Theatre Company in Chicago for twenty- nine years. She is the daughter of two writers, Henry Blakely and Gwendolyn Brooks, and founded Brooks Permissions, a company which manages her mother's body of work and promotes its continued relevance in the 21st century and beyond. As the Vice President of Brooks Permissions, Cynthia A. Walls held several positions in finance before focusing on the arts. After leaving the financial industry, she taught theater classes and workshops at numerous schools, colleges, commercial institutions and museums across Chicago. Ms. Walls managed The David Company, a publishing company owned by Gwendolyn Brooks. Jan Spivey Gilchrist is the award-winning artist and illustrator of nearly 80 books includes several Coretta Scott King Awards and a Peoples Choice Award among her many honors. She was inducted into the prestigious Society of Illustrators, 2000. In the upcoming picture book from Harper Collins, Ms. Gilchrist devotes her incredible talent to illustrating a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks.
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