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.

This panel celebrated African American women and their significant role in the Black Arts Movement. Panelists include: Margo Crawford, Assistant Professor of African American literature in the English department at Vassar College; Sterling Plumpp, award-winning poet and retired professor of African American studies at University of Illinois, Chicago, who has published twelve volumes of his work; and Angela Jackson, a literary artist who has written many volumes of poems, several short stories, and a popular romance novel.

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.