This year’s theme, Fine Fury: Celebrating Gwendolyn Brooks at 90, underscores the conference focus on literary artists who, like Ms. Brooks, use their pen as a tool of activism. Ms. Brooks, Illinois’ former poet laureate, would have celebrated her 90th birthday on June 7, 2007. Dr. Donda West, Sonia Sanchez and Martín Espada are joined by other prolific writers and poets of the African Diaspora as part of the 17th Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Writers’ Conference.

For this event, two of the nation’s most talented and influential literary artists speak about the power of the spoken and written word in activism.

Haki R. Madhubuti is a poet, distinguished university professor and Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at CSU. He is also the Founder of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at CSU.

Sonia Sanchez is a poet, playwright, author and activist who is internationally recognized as an influential part of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement. She is currently a poet-in-residence at Temple University, and has authored plays and books detailing the struggles and lives of Black America.

Events recorded as part of this conference:
The Landscape of Today’s Media
The State of Black Theater
Hip Hop & Social Justice
Keynote Address: Dr. Donda West
Gwendolyn Brooks Panel
A Giant’s Day Celebration of the Life and Works of Sonia Sanchez
Sister Poets In The Black Arts Movement
Conversation with Sonia Sanchez and Haki Madhubuti
Giant’s Day Address

Recorded Saturday, October 20, 2007 at Chicago State University.