Chicago Defender

Adele Biography Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on May 5, 1988 in North London, England. Her mother (Penny Adkins) gave birth to her when she was around 18. Adele’s father (Mark Evans) left her and her mother when she was 4. Adele started having a passion for music and started singing in her teen years. She was influenced by the Spice Girls and artists/groups such as Destiny’s child and Lauryn Hill. When Adele was about 14, she bought a whole collection of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald and

Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most renowned poets of her time. Brooks is acknowledged as the first black author who won a Pulitzer Prize; she was also the first black woman to hold a position in the Library of Congress. Many of Brooks’ poems reflected on the civil rights activism of her day. With these poems she connected racial identity, equality and politics into her works, but she “has also managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young black

Jodi Picoult was born on May 19, 1966 in Long Island. As a young teenager, her family relocated to New Hampshire. While attending Princeton, Jodi Picoult studied creative writing. As a college student, two short stories that Jodi wrote her published by Seventeen Magazine. Desperate to make ends meet, worked a slew of jobs, such as a technical writer for Wall Street, a copywriter with an ad agency, and even an 8th grade English teacher. Finally, Jodi decided to attend Harvard to get her Master’s

Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most highly regarded, highly influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois. Many of Brooks’s works display a political consciousness, especially those from the 1960s and later

her generation and Black militant writers of the 1960s. Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks is a Topeka, Kansas native. She was born on June 7, 1917 to Keizah Wims-Brooks and David Anderson Brooks. When she was only 6 weeks old, Brooks’ family moved to Chicago, Illinois, as part of the Great Migration. The Great Migration was a historical event that influenced Brooks’ writing because it initiated her family’s moving and the racial prejudice that would be the foundation for some of her best poems. Her mother

people that women have the option to abort, yet it is regretted. Many critics do not believe the poem to be acceptable and their analyses is incorrect. Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. As Brooks was growing up she moved to Chicago as part of the Great Migration. Brooks attended three high schools as she was growing up; Hyde Park High School, Wendell Phillips Academy High School, and Englewood High School, but she graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936. Gwendolyn married

I interviewed the fabulous Erica Kristen Vallin. Born in Northridge California on April 21 1991. Erica was born at Northridge hospital on a Sunday and is a Taurus. She is 24 years young with a bright future ahead of her. Erica is working for Bridge because she wants to be able to offer her knowledge and support to the EOP students because she has love for the program and wants to be a good source of resources to all the EOP students. Erica was born in Northridge California and lived in San Fernando

Gwendolyn Brook, a distinguished African American poet, won the Midwestern Conference poetry award in 1943. Brook's work captured blacks lives in the streets of Chicago. For instance, her poem “We Real Cool”, is about black kids who dropped out of school and decided to hang at a Pool hall wasting their lives away. As quoted, “We real cool, we left school, we will jazz June, and we die soon (2:337). Brooks perspectives of her poem is the lives of the black kids struggling for a sense of identity

The other Newbery honor award winner was Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Jacqueline Woodson was born February 12, 1963 in Columbus Ohio. She was raised in Greenville South Carolina, she used her own personal experiences growing up in South Carolina in her book Brown Girl Dreaming. During this time in the 60s and 70s Jacqueline mentions that she was very aware of segregation and she felt the difference of being African American in the south vs in New York. She also grew up as a Jehovah

opportunities to hold superior positions in the poetry community and even receiving multiple honors and rewards. Gwendolyn Brooks was a poet who rose to fame during the early 20th century. She was born in Topeka, Kansas, and grew up in the popular city of Chicago, Illinois. Brooks had a relatively quiet childhood. Both of her parents were present in her life, and she attended school everyday like a normal child would. However, Brooks faced some struggles in school that could possibly be