Matter in the Margins: Gwendolyn Brooks at 100 Exhibition Opening and Gallery Talk with curator Anna Chen

On the occasion of the opening of Matter in the Margins, curator and archivist Anna Chen discusses her work cataloging and arranging Gwendolyn Brooks’s papers. A comprehensive collection measuring over two hundred and fifty linear feet, Brooks’s papers include youthful poetry and prose, scrapbooks of pieces she published as a young woman, extensive correspondence with a significant roster of other writers, and manuscript drafts and proofs, especially after she left mainstream commercial publishing to produce her works with black-owned presses. The Brooks archives are now part of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and have been loaned to the Poetry Foundation in celebration of Brooks’s long relationship with Poetry, a history that includes the first publication of We Real Cool, The Bean Eaters, and Winnie, among others.

Poetry Foundation events are first come, first served and capacity is limited. We only allow late admittance during a pre-determined program break.

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