Black Girl from Miami

Writing specifically as a BGFM. Sometimes I poet.  www.BlackGirlFromMiami.com

[dy6watts-deactivated20170904]

Drama

Pariah

The Color Purple

Do the Right Thing

Eve’s Bayou

LUV

School Daze

Higher Learning

Waiting to Exhale

This Christmas

Boyz N the Hood

Comedy

Friday

Next Friday

Friday After the Next

Undercover Brother

House Party

The Nutty Professor

The Nutty Professor 2

Big Mama’s House 

Life

CB4

Down to Earth

Coming to America

HairShow

Phat Girlz

Scary Movie 1

Scary Movie 2

Haunted House

White Chicks

Don’t be a Meance…

Barbershop

Barbershop 2: Back in Business

Beauty shop

Death at a Funeral

Sci-fi and Fantasy

Blade

Blade II

Blade Trinity

Black Knight

Spawn

Meteor Man

Up Up Away

Seventeen Again

Beasts of a Southern Wild

After Earth

Twitches

Twitches Too

Vampire in Brooklyn

Animation

Princess and the Frog

One by One (Short Disney film)

Bebe’s Kids

African Tales: The Mark of Uru, Business and Pleasure, Enemy of the Rising Sun 

Zarafa (French film with english subtitles)

Aya de Yopougon

Nadia Secret of Blue water (anime film)

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Crime /Action

Bad Boys

Bad Boys 2

New Jack City

Set it Off

Romantic Comedy

Love Jones

Brown Sugar

The Best Man

Think Like a Man

Boomerang

Two Can play that game

The Wood

Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom

Deliver us from Eva

Jumping the Broom

Horror/Thriller

Gothika

Tales from the hood

Bones

The Inheritance

Biopics

What’s Love got to do with it?

The Temptations

The Jacksons An American Dream  (part 2) (part 3)

Lady Sings the Blues

Introducing Dorthy Dandrige

Notorious

Malcolm X

The Lena Baker Story

Why do fools fall in love?

Ray

The Josephine Baker Story

Musicals

The Wiz

Carmen Jones

Dreamgirls

Sparkle (1976)

Sparkle (2012)

Sister Act

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habbit

Carmen a Hip Hopera

Babymother

[ai-yo]

I don’t even know which one to watch first

[knowledgeequalsblackpower]

[gardenfulloflavender]

YASS! 

[blackfemmejeanvaljean]

I’ve waited a long time for this

[onlyblackgirl]

I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS POST

[blackgirlfrommiami]

Headed to the Flamenco ballet

[debtfreeinthree]

Why Freelancing Feels Like a Bad Boyfriend

I’ve been freelancing for six months now and though I had no idea how I would react to being self-employed, I’ve mostly loved the ride. Some days it’s a pleasant drive on a breezy day; other times, it’s like being on a rollercoaster for eight hours straight.

But the best way to describe freelancing is by comparing it to the cute boy you always had a crush on. He was popular, athletic, perfect on paper. But what he had in good lucks, he lacked in stability.

Freelancing is fickle. Some days I feel like not only am I creating a new life for myself, but I’m also making a statement for all female entrepreneurs. Other days I feel like napping all day and feeling sorry for myself (I have done this…several times).

Sometimes everything is going well. You’re getting compliments on your work, new clients are finding you on LinkedIn and people are paying their invoices within 2 days.

Other times it’s like every editor’s job is to drag you down below the depths of where your self-esteem wants to go. It seems like nothing you write is good enough, that no idea you have works and that your dream publication has blocked your email address.

Solution: Everyone has their own opinion. What works for one editor might be total garbage to another, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect on you. Some people have higher standards, yes, but other editors have specific guidelines to meet and their own bosses to appease.

Just because someone didn’t like what you wrote doesn’t mean you’re a terrible writer or that you have no future in this business. It just means you’re not a good fit for them. The good news is there are 1,287 other companies you could be writing for and haven’t pitched yet.

When I get really down about five rounds of edits from one client I start thinking that maybe I’m not good enough and then I remember some editors are picky some voices don’t match and sometimes if someone is really annoying, I think, “Why do I keep banging my head against the wall trying to work with this client?”

Solution: Sometimes people aren’t a good match – that’s all. It’s like dating a great guy, but knowing he’s not the right person for you. There’s nothing wrong with him or with you, but you’re not just right together.

I’ve had moments where I’ve connected with an editor I really like. The emails are going great, you ace the phone interview and then you find out that they’re offering you peanuts. It feels like you’ve wasted hours of your time trying to sell yourself, only to find out they practically want you to write for exposure.

Most of the time I’m angry that someone thinks so low of my work. But sometimes, I start thinking, “Well, maybe I should just lower my standards a bit. After all, a gig is a gig.”

Solution: Many of my freelance friends know me as the person who will ask for a higher rate at all costs. Once, a publication said they were offering $50 a post, and I replied that my minimum was $150. They agreed to the higher rate.

When I get tempted to take a low rate, I think back to all the lessons on negotiating and asking for higher rates that I’ve had throughout the years. Making room for a crappy client leaves no room for pitching and prospecting to find a better one.

One of the hardest parts of freelancing is doing a good job on a project or application only to be rejected by a potential client. This is usually a big reason why I end up taking three hour-long afternoon naps and eating gummy bears for lunch.

Solution: The key to not getting too upset at any one time is to have so many irons in the fire that you’re not worried about any one particular rejection or approval. Sure it’s great if you got a gig that you’ve been working on or a pitch that you love was accepted, but when you’re so focused on getting one in particular, you can lose perspective.

When I told my mom how I was worried about an anchor client cutting their freelance budget, she asked me if I was looking for new clients. I told her that I’m always looking for new clients.

I’m not casually sitting around waiting for emails to come through. I’m always pitching new people, keeping an eye out on job boards and finding new companies to contact. Doing this on daily basis means that even when I lose one client, I’m likely on my way to gaining another.

As stressful as this life can be, and it’s definitely made me consider raising my anxiety medication, I’m so much happier with my choice. I get up at 10 a.m., work when I need to and live in a city I love. If that isn’t worth putting up with a bad boyfriend, I’m not sure what is.

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Why Freelancing Feels Like a Bad Boyfriend was originally published on Debt Free After Three

[illustratedwomeninhistory]

Daisy Bates was an American journalist and civil rights activist who is best known for playing a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957. Bates was born in 1914 in Huttig, Arkansas. Bates was adopted as a baby after her mother was murdered when attempting to resist being raped by three white men. The men were never punished, and her father fled for his safety. At the age of seven, Bates came to understand racial discrimination for the first time when she was told while attempting to buy meat from the butcher “niggers have to wait ‘til I wait on the white people.” Not long after this, she discovered the truth about her parents and her anger, coupled with the fact that she attended the inferior segregated public high school in Hutting would later fuel her civil rights activism. When Bates was 15, she began dating L.C. Bates, an insurance salesman and experienced journalist ten years her senior. The two moved to Little Rock together in 1941 and married a year later. That same year, Bates joined her husband in his dream of running his own newspaper, the Arkansas State Press. The paper spotlighted achievements of black Arkansans, frequently ran articles on the need for social and economic improvements for black residents of Arkansas and became known for it’s reporting of acts of police brutality against black soldiers from a nearby army camp. The content of the paper led to white business owners pulling advertisements from the paper, but the couple continued to produce it despite the loss of revenue. It became a well-known voice for civil rights, even before the movement itself emerged. Little Rock began to gain a reputation as a liberal southern city as conditions improved, largely due to the relentless campaigning on the part of the paper. In 1952, Bates was elected president of the Arkansas Conference of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branches, she and her husband had been members since their arrival in Little Rock. She was also a co-chair for the state conference’s Committee of Fair Employment Practices, and was successful in both roles. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation was unconstitutional. Bates led the NAACP’s protest against the Little Rock school board after schools in Arkansas refused to enrol Black students. She personally took black children to the white public school, and photographers from the State Press documented them being turned away. The pressure her campaign put on the school board led to it announcing in 1957 that it would begin desegregating Central High School. Bates took a group of nine black students to Central High School on September 4th, but the Arkansas National Guard were ordered by Governor Orval Faubus to prevent them from entering the building. They were also faced with white mobs threatening to kill the black students and the Little Rock police chief was instructed to arrest Bates and other NAACP officials. They surrendered themselves, and were fined by the judge for failing to provide information about members for the public record. NAACP lawyers later appealed, and won a reversal in the U.S. Supreme Court. Following the first refusal to allow the students to attend the school, an editorial appeared on the front page of the State Press including the words ““It is the belief of this paper that since the Negro’s loyalty to America has forced him to shed blood on foreign battle fields against enemies, to safeguard constitutional rights, he is in no mood to sacrifice these rights for peace and harmony at home”. Bates’ home became the headquarters for the battle to desegregate Central High School, and became a personal advocate and supporter to the students. Effigy’s of Bates were hanged by segregationists, and bombs were thrown at her home. She was also threatened, and forced to keep a loaded shotgun by her door to protect herself. On September 25th of that year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect the students and uphold the law. Flanked by the troops, the Little Rock Nine were finally allowed to attend their first day at school. Bates continued to support them as they faced harassment and intimidation from people against desegregation, despite the fact that she continued to receive numerous threats. The Arkansas State Press suffered due to Bates’ involvement in the desegregation of Little Rock as advertisers orchestrated a boycott which ultimately caused the paper to shut down in 1959. The following year, Bates’ husband accepted a post with the NAACP and continued in the position until his retirement in 1971. Bates spent her time writing a book detailing the Little Rock Integration Crisis and in 1962 The Long Shadow of Little Rock was published, with a foreword by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Bates then moved to Washington D.C. where she worked for the Democratic National Committee and became involved with anti-poverty projects for President Lydon B. Johnson’s administration. In 1965, Bates suffered a stroke and returned to Little Rock. A year later, she donated papers, photographs, and other historical documents from the Little Rock crisis to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In 1968, she moved to Mitchellville, Arkansas where she worked on a community revitalisation project which was responsible for new sewer systems, paved streets, a water system, and community center. In 1984, Bates resurrected the Arkansas State Press and ran it for four years, after which she sold it but continued to act as a consultant. In 1999, Bates died in Little Rock. She has received numerous honours for her work, including: being named Woman of the Year (1957) by the National Council of Negro Women; receiving the Spingarn Medal as a joint recipient with the Little Rock Nine; American Book Award (1988) and was been posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton along with the other Little Rock Nine members in 1999. The Daisy Bates Elementary School in Little Rock in named in her honour, and the third Monday in February is now an official state holiday in Arkansas named the ”George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day”. Sources here, here, here and here.

[illustratedwomeninhistory]

#BlackHistoryMonth2016

Black History Month is coming to a close & in this post I’ve compiled a list of all of the amazing women I’ve illustrated for Black History Month, along with a summary of their accomplishments and a link to the original post. This has been the most successful month to date for Illustrated Women in History and I just want to thank all of my followers for sharing this celebration of women with me.

Octavia E. Butler was a world renowned African-American science fiction novelist and the first African-American woman to gain popularity and critical acclaim as a major science fiction writer. Her novels include Patternmaster, Kindred, Dawn and Parable of the Sower. 

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Zadie Smith is a British novelist, essayist, and short story writer best known for her novel, White Teeth. 

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Viola Desmond was a Black Nova Scotian businesswoman who challenged racial segregation at a film theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1946. Her actions sparked the modern civil rights movement in Canada. 

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Eartha Kitt was an American actress, singer, cabaret star, dancer, stand-up comedian, activist and voice artist. She had a distinctive singing style and is best known for her Christmas song “Santa Baby” and for playing Catwoman in the television series Batman. 

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Bridget “Biddy” Mason was an African-American nurse, real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was able to support her extended family for generations due to her financial success.

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Miriam Makeba was a South African singer and civil rights activist also known as “Mama Africa” and the “Empress of African Song”. She introduced Xhosa and Zulu songs to Western audiences, becoming one of the world’s most prominent black African performers in the 20th century. She is best known for the songs “Pata Pata,” “The Click Song” and “Malaika.”

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Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an organisation fighting to conserve the environment and campaign for women’s rights. She was the first African women to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights, and women’s rights in particular”.

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Georgia Douglas Johnson was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and the first modern African-American female poet and playwright to gain widespread recognition.

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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the current President of Liberia. She is the first elected female head of state in Africa as well as the world’s first elected black female president. In 2011 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for her non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”

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Ella Baker was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist who worked with the NAACP and co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

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Gwendolyn Brooks was an American poet and teacher. She was the first black author to win a Pulitzer prize, the first black woman to become poetry consultant to the Library of Congress and the Poet Laureate of Illinois from 1968 until her death.

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Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and philanthropist. She was instrumental in organising Mississippi’s Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and served as vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

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Dorothy Height was an American civil rights and women’s rights activist who served as president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for four decades. She is known as the “godmother of the civil rights movement.”

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Ntozake Shange is an American playwright and poet best known for the Obie Award-winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. She is a self-proclaimed black feminist, and her work frequently addresses race and feminism.

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Ethel L. Payne was an African-American journalist, publisher, civil rights leader, and educator known as the “First Lady of the Black Press”.

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Alice Walker is an American novelist, story story writer, poet and civil rights activist. She is best known for her critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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Margaret Ekpo was a Nigerian women’s rights activist, social mobiliser and a pioneering female politician in Nigeria’s First Republic.

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Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first black professional nurse in the U.S. She co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), which worked to eliminate racial discrimination within the registered nursing profession. 

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Daisy Bates was an American journalist and civil rights activist who is best known for playing a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957. 

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[blackgirlfrommiami]

Yessssss

[speechmusic]

Nothing new. #TimeToChange

[veganfoodpornpictures]

Burrito Bowl (Source) VeganFoodPornPictures.com | Vegan Cookbooks On Sale! Like Us On Facebook | Follow Us On Twitter

[blackgirlfrommiami]

The only way to solace anyone who loved you in life is to be a good memory

Alice Walker

[blackgirlfrommiami]

February 27, 2016, from Miami

My 73-year-old grandfather

likes to leave voice messages on my phone;

They sound like a song

in which my name is a sweet melody

on his old tongue.

Over and over he croons,

“call me back, call me back. This is grandpaw”,

--as if I can forget the last vestiges

of home.

[vegan-yums]

Root vegetable power bowl with garlic tahini sauce / Recipe

[sprdlove]

[illustratedwomeninhistory]

Ethel L. Payne was an African-American journalist, publisher, civil rights leader, and educator known as the “First Lady of the Black Press”. Payne was born in 1911 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Englewood, which was a black community surrounded by white neighbourhoods. Payne’s father died when she was 12, and her mother was forced to clean houses and take in lodgers to support the family. Payne’s mother would read the Bible and other literature to her as a child, and this sparked an interest in writing. She showed an early talent for writing, and her mother encouraged her to attend Lindblom High School in a white area. Payne walked through a segregated neighbourhood every day, and was subjected to racial abuse and even had rocks thrown at her. At school, she excelled in English and history, and her English teacher recognised and nurtured her talent, pushing her to write essays and stories, one of which she submitted to a magazine. Some of her work was published in the High School’s literary magazine. Payne was determined to become a civil rights Lawyer so that she could defend the rights of poor people and stand up to the bullies who had taunted her brother. She briefly attended Crane Junior College and a division of Garrett Biblical Institute before applying to the University of Chicago Law School. Her application was refused, partly due to racial discrimination. Payne then worked as a matron at a girls reform school and a Chicago Public Library clerk. During this time, she became active in civil rights and was appointed by the Governor of Illinois to serve on the state’s Human Rights Commission. In 1948, Payne took a position with the Red Cross in Japan, working as a hostess at an Army Special Services Club. She wrote a diary while there, and a reporter from the Chicago Defender read it and, impressed with her observations he took it back to Chicago. Excerpts of her writing were used on the Defender’s front page, and detailed illegal and immoral practices within the military. In the early 1950’s, Payne moved back to the U.S. and began working for The Defender as a reporter. In 1952, the Illinois Press Association recognised her writing on the crisis affected the adoption of African American babies as the best news story of the year. In 1954, she became the chief of the Defender’s Washington D.C. bureau and continued to develop her interest in civil rights. She reported on milestones of the civil rights movement, including: the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the forced desegregation efforts at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas; demonstrations in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama; and the 1963 March on Washington. Payne was one of a few black female reporters in Washington at the time, and was subjected to racial and gender discrimination. Payne allowed nothing to hold her back, and became an aggressive and determined reporter who was committed to asking difficult questions. In the mid-1950’s, Payne expanded her focus when being allowed to cover stories overseas, becoming the “first African-American woman to focus on international news coverage.” Payne covered the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia and Ghana’s independence movement but it wasn’t until her coverage of the African-American troops fighting in the Vietnam War in 1966 that she got her big break. She investigated American military supplies being sold on the black market, was able to observe the soldiers learning guerrilla warfare and experienced the effects of the chemical agent orange first hand. Payne also covered the Nigerian civil War and the International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City and travelled to Africa on separate occasions with Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry Kissinger. In 1972, Payne became the first African-American female radio and television commentator to be employed by a national network when she was hired by CBS. She worked there for a decade, and created segments that discussed topics important to the African-American community. In 1978, after 28 years of service to the Defender she left to begin a freelance career and wrote a syndicated column that ran in six black newspapers across the country. In the early 1980’s, Payne campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and travelled to Africa to participate in anti-apartheid demonstrations and tour refugee camps in Somalia, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Payne continued to write and speak at events until her death in1991. She opened many doors for African-American women in journalism and was the recipient of many honours during her lifetime including being named “Woman of Action” in 1980 for outstanding achievements in journalism, presented to her by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club; the Candace Award of the Coalition of 100 Women in 1998. In 2002, she was honoured with a U.S. postage stamp as part of a “Women in Journalism” series and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) award “Ethel Payne Fellowships” to journalists interested in obtaining international reporting experience through assignments in Africa. Sources here, here, here and here.

[blackgirlfrommiami]

I'm gonna spread out over America intrude my proud blackness all over the place.

Mari Evans

[blackgirlfrommiami]

February 21, 2016, from Miami

In the news

A passel of bodies murdered in cold blood- this is the place I call home. I say a prayer on my way to work & light a candle when I return.

[ryn83-deactivated20250517]

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

How to Overcome Procrastination

1. Be honest with yourself and admit that you’re putting off stuff that really needs to be done.

2. Try and figure out why you’re procrastinating. Is it because you don’t like it, it creates anxiety, you don’t understand it, it feels overwhelming, you’re disorganised …?

3. Decide to break the habit of procrastination by deliberately rewarding yourself for doing something you’d rather not do.

4. Make a pact with a friend –where you deliberately and regularly encourage each other, and hold each other accountable.

5. Sit down and think – in detail – about all the likely consequences of not doing what needs to be done. Be brutally honest, and try and picture what you’re life is going to look like 6 months, a year and five years from now ( if you continue to procrastinate).

6. Decide to break large tasks down into smaller, more achievable tasks, and then tackle these smaller tasks one at a time.

7. Recognise your progress, and affirm and praise yourself for making these changes – and doing things differently, even though it’s hard.

[illustratedwomeninhistory]

Gwendolyn Brooks was an American poet and teacher. She was the first black author to win a Pulitzer prize, the first black woman to become poetry consultant to the Library of Congress and the Poet Laureate of Illinois from 1968 until her death. Brooks was born in 1917 in Topeka, Kansas to David Anderson and Kesiah Brooks. When Brooks was six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago as part of the Great Migration. Brooks first attended the prestigious, integrated Hyde Park High School before transferring to the all-black Wendell Phillips Academy High School, then the integrated Englewood High School. While attending some of these high schools, Brooks experienced racial prejudice that would later influence her writing. By the age of 13, Brooks had her first poem “Eventide” published in American Childhood and by 16 she had compiled a portfolio of around 75 published poems. At 17 she frequently had poetry published in the “Lights and Shadows” column of the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper. After high school, Brooks attended Wilson Junior College (now Kennedy-King College) and writing poems which ranged from traditional ballads and sonnets to poems using blues rhythms in free verse. She graduated in 1936, and worked as a secretary to support herself while continuing to write. Two years later, Brooks was appointed as the publicity director of the local NAACP Youth Council, where she would meet her future husband Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr. In 1941, she began attending poetry workshops at Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center, including one run by Inez Cunning Stark. Brooks continued to write poems influenced by urban black Chicago, and the workshops enabled her to refine her skills. Two years later, Brooks won a poetry award from the Midwestern Writer’s Conference and she began collected work together to form her first book of poetry. A Street in Bronzeville was published in 1945 and became an instant success, leading to many honours including a Guggenheim Fellowship. She followed this with Annie Allen in 1949, for which she became the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. She also won Poetry magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize. In the 1950’s, Brooks published her first and only novel entitled Maud Martha, which details a black woman’s life in short vignettes. Maud, the title character is subjected to discrimination from both whites and blacks, particularly those who have lighter skin than hers. Brooks drew on her own experience in writing the book, and showed what black people go to in being subjected to white standards of beauty. In the early 1960’s, Brooks began her teaching career when invited by author Frank London Brown to teach a course in American literature at the University of Chicago. Brooks then taught extensively around the country, holding posts at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, City College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Throughout her teaching career, Brooks continued to write and publish and in 1967 her work took a far more political stance following a gathering of black writers at Fisk University. A year later, “In The Mecca” was published, showing "a deepening of Brooks’s concern with social problems” and drew inspiration events of the time, including the death of Malcolm X and the dedication of a mural of black heroes painted on a Chicago building. The book was nominated for a National Book Award in poetry. That same year, she became the Poet Laureate of Illinois, a position which enabled her to encourage and honour poets in her state through the Illinois Poets Laureate Awards and Significant Illinois Poets Awards programs. In 1972, Brooks published the first of two volumes of autobiography entitled Report from Part One, the second part of her autobiography was written while she served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the first black woman appointed to the post. In 2000, she died at her home on Chicago’s South Side. She is buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois. Brooks was the recipient of many honours, including the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America (1976) and the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement by the Poetry Society of America (1989); the National Book Foundations’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (1994); the National Medal of Arts (1995); the Chicago History Museum’s “Making History Award” for Distinction in Literature (1995) and the Order of Lincoln award from The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the highest honour granted by the State of Illinois. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988 and there are many education facilities now named after her including the Gwendolyn Books Cultural Centre at Western Illinois University, Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University and Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois State Library at Springfield, Illinois amongst others. She also received more than 75 honorary degrees from colleges and universities worldwide. Sources here, here, here and here.