meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Documentary Podcast

We Real Cool: The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.32.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2015

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gwendolyn Brooks was an African American poet whose imagination, conscience and passion for words made her the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1950. Narrated by her daughter Nora Brooks Blakely, this is a portrait of her life through the voices of friends and fellow poets - including Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti and Sharon Olds.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is a BBC podcast. You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts.

0:10.0

Inside me I feel stars in the sun and bells and same game.

0:17.0

We real cool.

0:19.0

Poetry of Gwendoline Brooks.

0:21.0

Inside me I feel...

0:23.0

There are children in the world all around me and beyond me.

0:30.0

Presented by Nora Brooks Blakely.

0:33.2

The Aurora Performance Group singing A Little Girls Poem by Gwendolen Brooks.

0:38.6

Gwendolen was my mother.

0:41.0

She was also a poet, a mentor and a teacher, a tea drinking scone eating soap opera

0:47.4

addict, a mover and a lover of Beethoven and James Brown, a forensic watcher of other people.

0:57.0

And she brought all of that and more to her carefully woven words,

1:02.0

words which still have great residents today.

1:05.0

Life is for us and is shining. We have a right to sing. Life is for us and is shining.

1:13.5

We have a right.

1:15.0

Along with APG there, a group of artists dedicated to illuminating mama's poetry.

1:20.0

In this program you'll also hear the voices of some of her dearest friends and fellow poets including Sonia Sanchez, Hockey Matabooti and Sharon Olds.

1:34.1

She was so huge in her spirit.

1:36.4

Her soul was so huge.

1:39.0

So huge.

1:40.4

I think her emotional IQ and her brain IQ were both way out the top for our species.

1:49.0

Even at a young age, her creative brain was ticking.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.