Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Gwendolyn Brooks emphasizes the importance of creating poetry that resonates with the everyday experiences of Black individuals in various settings.
In this quote, Gwendolyn Brooks speaks to her mission as a poet to craft works that reflect the diverse and authentic experiences of Black people, aiming to make her poetry accessible and relatable across different spaces, from informal taverns to the hustle of the streets and the realities of housing projects. This reflects her commitment to social relevance in art and the power of poetry as a vehicle for representing marginalized voices.
Themes
PoetryExpressionBlack ExperienceArtSocial Relevance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of diverse voices in literature at a cultural festival.
More from Gwendolyn Brooks
All quotes →Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, "Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night." You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
I shall create! If not a note, a hole./If not an overture, a desecration.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
Similar quotes
An artist must believe in himself - Possibly not so passionately as Lawrence - but passionately. Your belief is contagious. Others say - He is vain - but they are affected.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven; and as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name; such tricks hath strong imagination.
William ShakespeareRead
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Mikhail BaryshnikovRead
In the waking dreams our societies permit, in our myths, our arts, our songs, we celebrate the nonbelongers, the different ones, the outlaws, the freaks.
Salman RushdieRead
I just like art. I get pure pleasure from it. I have a lot of wonderful paintings, and every time I look at them I see something different.
Jack NicholsonRead
The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will.
Czeslaw MiloszRead