Gwendolyn Brooks
Obama Presidential Center Honoree
Space Name: Gwendolyn Brooks Auditorium Platform | Hadiya Pendleton Atrium | Forum | Level 1
Gwendolyn Brooks was a groundbreaking poet whose work gave voice to the lives and struggles of Chicago’s South Side. She was the first Black American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, using language to capture both beauty and injustices in everyday life. Brooks’s commitment to her community shows how art rooted in truth and empathy inspires change and gives power to ordinary voices.
With gratitude to The Mellon Foundation
"We are honored to partner with the Obama Presidential Center in dedicating this space to the American literary giant and bard of the South Side, Gwendolyn Brooks. It is our hope that Brooks's visionary poetry and vision of community care animate this gathering space long into the future. In her words:
'we are each other's
business:
we are each other's
magnitude and bond.'"
- Elizabeth Alexander
Legacy on Campus
Hadiya Pendleton Atrium
Named in memory of Hadiya Pendleton, the Atrium is an open and welcoming space that allows us to gather, connect, and better understand the boundless potential that lies within each of us.
Obama Presidential Center, Chicago Public Library Branch
Explore our collection of physical books, e-books, audiobooks, magazines, and newspapers, all available for you to read, borrow, and enjoy. Enter into the Library and find classic works by literary figures such as Maya Angelou and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Meet More Honorees
Through the honoree naming initiative at the Obama Presidential Center, we are partnering with our donors to celebrate a part of the history in which the Obama story is so deeply rooted by associating a named space with a hero, moment, or person "on whose shoulders we stand"—an honoree who made the Obamas’ story possible.
Meet More Honorees