Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series

  A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun by Angela Jackson  published in 2017   Book Discussion March 29, 2025   Gwendolyn Brooks was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, author, and teacher who was born in 1917. She was born in Kansas but wa s brought up on the south side of Chicago.   She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950, making her the first African American to win a Pulitzer. The prize was for Annie Allen , a book of poetry about a young African American girl growing into womanhood. Brooks became the Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and held this position for 32 years until her death. She also was US Poet Laureate for the 1985-1986 term, the first woman to hold this position.   The author of A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun , Angela Jackson, is a poet in her own right. She's been nominated for The National Book Award and longlisted for the Pulitz er Prize as well.   Angela Jackson, author of A Surprised Queenhood in the New...