Gwendolyn Bennett: Paving the Way for Others

Gwendolyn B. Bennett

Gwendolyn Bennett was born in 1902 in Giddings, Texas. Bennett attended Brooklyn’s Girls High School from 1818 to 1821. She then attended Columbia University under the Department of Fine Arts, this
was after she struggled whether to attend to her writing or art career. She ended up transferring to Pratt Institute where she graduated in 1924. When she graduated, she focused on both her writing and art career although she mainly focused on writing.

Brooklyn's Girls High School

Bennett wrote for many journals and in 1923 her poem “Heritage” was published in the journal Opportunity. Her illustration, a cover, was also published in another journal, Crisis. Due to her perseverance, Bennett had twenty-two of her poems published between the years 1923 and 1931. These poems were published in journals such as Crisis, Opportunity, Palms, and Gypsy. Some of her poems included “To a Dark Girl”, “Dear Things”, and “Fantasy”.

In 1924 Bennett began teaching at Howard University. She left from 1925 to ‘26 in order to study art in Paris. She returned to Harlem, where she lived the majority of her life, in 1926. In 1927 many of Bennett’s poems were published in books put together by William Stanley, Courley Cullens, and James Welders. In 1927 she returned to teach at Howard University only to leave in 1928. In 1928 she also married Alfred Jackson.

 Howard University

On of the hardest events for a married couple is when one dies. This happened to Bennett in 1936 when her husband died. She overcame the death and continued with her career. In 1938 she joined the Harlem Artists’ Guild. In the guild she helped other individuals become familiarized with the arts as well as facilitate their development. This shift in career focus happened mainly due to the Great Depression.

An impactful quote by Bennett is, “Brushes and paints are all I have To speak the music in my soul”. This is a quote that may have inspired many artists to fully express and let themselves go while painting. Bennett painted in the fashion that was popular during the Harlem Renaissance although her untitled work of of a river landscape is painted more realistically. Among her other untitled works lies Sonnet 2. which is a poem in which Bennett delineates all that she finds beautiful. The scenes she depicts are simple yet have an appeal to them, at the end of her sonnet she states that nothing is more beautiful than the tears in your eyes which could mean tears of happiness or sorrow.

Bennett's Untitled painting.