TBT: Gwendolyn Brooks becomes first African-American to win Pulitzer Prize

April is National Poetry Month and in Illinois, a state with a rich literary history, it is the perfect time to celebrate the life and cultural achievements of Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks was the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her book of poetry Annie Allen. Because of her long and decorated career as a writer and professor of poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks has earned her place among the literary titans of Illinois and the United States.

Born in Kansas in 1917 to parents who encouraged her creativity and intellectual curiosity, Brooks and her family moved to Chicago when she was very young. Brooks was an avid reader and writer as a child and her talent was evident at a young age. She was first published at 13 when American Childhood published her poem “Eventide.” By the age of 17, her poems were frequently published in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper serving Chicago’s black population.

Brooks’s community and upbringing are important threads that run through all of her work. Her first collection is titled A Street in Bronzeville, a nod to her neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Her poems celebrated, examined and portrayed urban black culture in the mid-20th century, a time when such representations were extremely rare. Literary critic Richard K. Barksdale described the poems in Brooks’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Annie Allen as “devoted to small, carefully cerebrated, terse portraits of the Black urban poor.” The author herself once described her style as “folksy narrative.”

Annie Allen tells the story of a black girl growing into adulthood. The work addresses social issues of the time, including the role of women in society. Starr Nelson of Saturday Review of Literature calls the book “a work of art and a poignant social document.” The book was published in 1949 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 at a time when the American literary community had not yet awarded the Prize to an African-American and had honored very few women with the Prize.

Brooks had a long writing career during which she also taught at Illinois institutions of higher learning including Columbia College, Northeastern Illinois University and Elmhurst College. Because of her contributions to the American literary and cultural landscape, Brooks succeeded the great Carl Sandburg as poet laureate of Illinois in 1968. She served in that position until her death in 2000 after a long and prolific career. She left behind a substantial body of work and a long list of contributions to American culture.

Pequod’s named best pizza in Illinois

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Are you in Chicago and looking for some good deep dish pizza? Are you looking for the best deep dish pizza? Then look no further than Pequod’s on Clybourn Avenue. Recently named the “Best Pizza in Illinois” by The Daily Meal, Pequod’s has been serving up Chicago’s signature pizza for 25 years.

What sets Pequod’s deep dish apart from the others you might ask? Pequod’s famous “caramelized crust,” which the Daily Meal described as “chewy, crusty, quasi-burnt cheese crust that forms the outer edge of this cheesy casserole.”

The Daily Meal set out several criteria for their rankings. The rankings looked at over 800 restaurants across the nation whose menu was entirely pizza or had a section completely dedicated to pizza. They then had a panel choose the best location in each state.

This isn’t the first time Pequod’s has been recognized, either. In 2015, the Food Network named Pequod’s one of the top five pizza places in the entire country.

Whether you’re in the mood for pizza, pasta or an Italian beef sandwich, Pequod’s is the neighborhood place to fill up with family. For more information about what Pequod’s locations have to offer, you can visit their website here.

Flashback Friday: First Europeans arrive in Peoria

Tomorrow marks the 343rd anniversary of European involvement in Illinois. On Good Friday in 1674, Jesuit priest Fr. Jacques Marquette declared possession of a Kaskaskia village near present-day Ottawa and named it the Mission of the Immaculate Conception. It was the first Catholic mission in Illinois.

Fr. Marquette and his guide, Louis Jolliet, were the first Europeans to have contact with the Illiniwek nation Indians when they met with leaders in a village on the Illinois River in 1673, about a year prior to founding the mission.

After initially meeting the leaders of the Peoria and Kaskaskia tribes, two of about a dozen tribes in the Illiniwek Confederation, Marquette and Jolliet left the village to return to their base near Traverse City, Michigan. Local leaders sent the two Frenchmen off with a feast of corn porridge, fish, buffalo and dog (which the Europeans declined). The tribal leaders wished them well and encouraged them to return.

When they returned the following April after having waited out the winter of 1673-74 in a small hut near what would become Chicago, they were welcomed with open arms by the Illiniwek villagers. Historians suspect that the Illiniwek were so gracious because Marquette and Joliet told them that the French had vanquished their enemies, the Iroquois, with the help of the Christian God.

The establishment of the Mission of the Immaculate Conception is an important event in the history of Illinois. Only a few years later, the French established Fort Crevecoeur near the mission on the east bank of the Illinois River. A permanent settlement would later spring up around the fort and the mission and grew into what is now the city of Peoria.

Park of the month: Garfield Park

Located on the West Side of Chicago, Garfield Park is a jewel in the “emerald necklace,” a ring of parks and tree-lined boulevards built around what was the western edge of the city in the middle of the 19th century. The goal of this development was to make urban living more active and healthy. Covering about 185 acres of land with recreation facilities, green space, Prairie-style buildings and its famous Conservatory, Garfield Park remains true to the vision put forth by its founders in 1869.

Garfield Park is best known for its conservatory, which has been described as “landscape architecture under glass.” The Garfield Park Conservatory is about two acres in size. It is designed to resemble a haystack, a nod to the Midwest’s agricultural tradition and connection to nature.

The month of April is the height of The Garfield Park Conservatory Spring Flower Show, a yearly exhibition that runs from mid-February to mid-May. In honor of the Chicago Cubs’ recent World Series victory, this year’s theme is “Spring Training.” The exhibition, which features azaleas, tulips, snapdragons and camellias, is decorated with homages to baseball in Chicago. The conservatory is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of Wednesdays, when the conservatory stays open until 8 p.m.

With its rare plants and expert landscape design, the Conservatory has drawn people to Garfield Park since it opened in 1908, but there are numerous other attractions and amenities. Garfield Park is home to several statues and monuments, baseball fields, boxing, basketball, gymnastics and fitness facilities, football and soccer fields, multiple playgrounds, a lagoon for fishing and much more. While the conservatory closes early, the park is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.

As the weather warms and green leaves return to trees, the emerald necklace begins to take on the green hue that has made it popular for nearly 150 years. There is perhaps no better time to take advantage of all that Garfield Park has to offer.