“We Real Cool” is a five-stanza jazz poem by Black American poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Written in 1959 and originally published in Poetry magazine, it was included in her third collection of poetry The Bean Eaters, published in 1960. Considered one of the best examples of jazz poetry, the poem reads like a script or score for a work of jazz to be performed. It explores the underworld associated with jazz music, and it embodies the essence of such music.
Gwendolyn Brooks (born 1917) was the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and is best known for her intense poetic portraits of urban African Americans.Gwendolyn Brooks was bo...
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The first black writer to win the Pulitzer Prize, Gwendolyn Brooks holds, as the critic George E. Kent noted in Dictionary of Literary Biography, "a unique position in American letters. Not only has s...
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According to her autobiography, Report from Part One (1972), Gwendolyn Brooks was a shy and sensitive schoolgirl who, while yearning for the glamour and popularity of some girls around her, spent her...
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Gwendolyn Brooks holds a unique position in American letters. Not only has she combined a strong commitment to racial identity and equality with a mastery of poetic techniques, but she also has manage...
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Throughout her career Gwendolyn Brooks has been committed to a political vision of black liberty and equality while refusing to sacrifice the complexity and sheer beauty of her art. In light of her ac...
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Biography EssayAccording to her autobiography, Report from Part One (1972), Gwendolyn Brooks was a shy and sensitive schoolgirl who, while yearning for the glamour and popularity of some girls around ...
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