That seems like cause for celebration.
One of my favorite poems of hers is Kitchenette Building.
We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.
You can hear her read it here at the Poetry Foundation site.
I remember being introduced to her work in grade school in Illinois. That was the first time I realized women could be writers. You’d think it would’ve been Emily Dickinson, but Illinois was proud of its Poet Laureate and made sure she was taught in our classes. Ms. Brooks was alive and part of my world, not part of a distanced past. She was writing about things I’d seen and experienced myself, not Victorian philosophizing.
She and Jane Addams made growing up in Illinois a lucky thing – I was exposed to two extraordinary thinkers and writers at an early age, because they were part of local history. (And, not to pile on here, but did you know Jane Addams won the Nobel Peace prize?)