Books like In the Mecca

The first week of January marks Gwendolyn Brooks' birthday. I thought that would be as good of an occasion as any to kick off my personal Read Chicago challenge. Brooks was the second poet laureate of Illinois, following the illustrious Carl Sandburg. She held this position from 1964 until her death. Brooks was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer in poetry for Annie Allen in 1950, which I read a year ago, followed by her only novel Maud Martha in 1954. In the Mecca is the first volume of poetry that Brooks wrote in ten years following the publication of Maud Martha. This slim volume shows the author's maturity and speaks to the changing African American experience. The first half of this volume is the title poem In the Mecca. Taking place at the Mecca housing building for which the poem gets its name, Brooks focuses on three generations of African Americans who live there. It is the 1960s on the south side of Chicago on the eve of the civil rights act. African Americans even in the north are subject to forms of Jim Crow laws and another Mecca, that of the lights of downtown Chicago, seem a world away to the inhabitants of the Mecca apartment building. Yet, the denizens of Chicago's south side persevere. Their block is their world and within the safe haven of their personal apartments, these citizens are free of the dangers brought about by Jim Crow. Brooks focal point is Mrs Sallie Smith to whom everyone in the neighborhood brings their issues. Sallie entertains male and female guests including Alfred and Hyena, a sister who comes to share the latest gossip. The women discuss the merits of dressing like whites, with Sallie being one of the first in the neighborhood to lighten her hair. Brooks also has the women reflecting on their children and the future they may have and contrasts this with Sallie's grandmother who remembers slavery all too well. These three generations also speak to changing times, yet, as much as things change, the more they remain the same. When Sallie's daughter Pepita goes missing, she fears the worst and has the entire neighborhood look for her. Brooks' prose is impeccable and the search for Pepita reads like a literary fiction novel. As a result, I was treated to a true master. The second half of the volume pays homage to fallen African American leaders including Medgar Evers and Malcolm X. Brooks lauds both of these leaders as trailblazers. When referring to Evers, she writes of a man "whose height his fear improved he arranged to fear no further. The raw intoxicated time was time for better birth or a final death. Malcolm X she calls an "original, ragged-round, rich-robust," a true leader. She states that "he opened us- who was a key, who was a man." It feels as though with these two poems that Brooks is encouraging African Americans to take up the mantra in the cause for equal rights. She follows u these homages with Gang Girls and The Sermon of the Warpland which both speak of the 1960s African American experience and are a poignant ending the volume. In the Mecca would have been a telling addition to a Black History Month yet I enjoyed reading Brooks' poetry to get my Read Chicago challenge off the ground. Where this challenge takes remains to be seen, but with the numerous books written about the city, the possibilities are endless. I was especially pleased with the poem The Chicago Picasso which reflects on the beauty of a sculpture I have visited many times en route to see the lions outside of the Art Institute. Gwendolyn Brooks is a true treasure and, I hope to continue the tradition of reading her poetry around her birthday in the years to come. 4.5 stars