National Poetry Month: Educator Barnes Reads – The Boy Died in My Alley

Gwendolyn Brooks is one of my favorite black female poets.  She has numerous accolades:  Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1950,  Illinois poet laureate in 1968, and first black woman poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in 1985, to name a few.

Some poets spend more time dressing up their poems with unnecessary language.  Brooks isn’t that poet.  She is direct and to the point.  This is why I enjoy her poems.  Her poems also gives the reader a window into another person’s life or challenges the reader’s thinking and actions.  Her poem, “The Boy Died in My Alley” makes the reader think about how our passiveness could lead to someone’s demise.

Check out the poem in the video below.