Caption	David Cronenberg at Cannes, 2002
Birth name	David Paul Cronenberg
Birth date	March 15, 1943
Birth place	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other names	Dave Deprave Baron of Blood
Occupation	Director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1966 – present
Spouse	Margaret Hindson (1970–1977) Caroline Zeifman (1979–)

David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the psychological is typically intertwined with the physical. In the first half of his career, he explored these themes mostly through horror and science fiction, although his work has since expanded beyond these genres. He has been called "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world."

Personal life

Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he currently lives. He is the son of Esther (née Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor. Cronenberg attended Harbord Collegiate Institute, later graduating from University College, University of Toronto with a degree in literature, having switched from science. He has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences. He remains an atheist and does not believe in an afterlife.

Career

After two short sketch films and two short art-house features (the black and white Stereo and the colour Crimes of the Future) Cronenberg went into partnership with Ivan Reitman. The Canadian government provided financing for his films through the 1970s. He alternated his signature "body horror" films such as Shivers with projects reflecting his interest in car racing and bike gangs. Rabid exploited the unexpected acting talents of pornographic actress Marilyn Chambers (Cronenberg's first choice was a young, then-unknown Sissy Spacek). Rabid was a breakthrough with international distributors and his next two horror features gained stronger support.

Over the arc of his career, Cronenberg's films follow a definite progression, a movement from the social world to the inner life. In his early films, scientists modify human bodies, which results in the breakdown of social order (e.g. Shivers, Rabid). In his middle period, the chaos wrought by the scientist is more personal, (e.g. The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome). In the later period, the scientist himself is altered by his experiment (e.g. his remake of The Fly). This trajectory culminates in Dead Ringers in which a twin pair of gynecologists spiral into codependency and drug addiction. His later films tend more to the psychological, often contrasting subjective and objective realities (eXistenZ, M. Butterfly, Spider).

Perhaps the best example of a film that straddles the line between his works of personal chaos and psychological confusion is Cronenberg's "adaptation" of his literary hero William S. Burroughs' most controversial book, Naked Lunch. The book was considered "unfilmable" and Cronenberg acknowledged that a straight translation into film would "cost 100 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world". Instead—much like in his earlier film, Videodrome—he consistently blurred the lines between what appeared to be reality and what appeared to be hallucinations brought on by the main character's drug addiction. Some of the book's "moments" (as well as incidents loosely based upon Burroughs' life) are presented in this manner within the film. Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for Naked Lunch, he felt a moment of synergy with the writing style of Burroughs. He felt the connection between his screenwriting style and Burroughs' prose style was so strong, that he jokingly remarked that should Burroughs pass on, "I'll just write his next book."

Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen "from the point of view of the disease", and that, for example, he identifies with the characters in Shivers after they become infected with the anarchic parasites. Disease and disaster, in Cronenberg's work, are less problems to be overcome than agents of personal transformation. Similarly, in Crash (1996), people who have been injured in car crashes attempt to view their ordeal as "a fertilizing rather than a destructive event". In 2005, Cronenberg would say that he was upset that Paul Haggis had chosen the same name for his Academy Award winning film Crash, feeling it was "stupid" and "very disrespectful."

Aside from The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly, Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses. At one stage he was considered by George Lucas as a possible director for but was passed. Cronenberg also worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall but experienced "creative differences" with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett. A different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven. A fan of Philip K. Dick, author of "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale," the short story upon which the film was based, Cronenberg related (in the biography/overview of his work, Cronenberg on Cronenberg) that his dissatisfaction with what he envisioned the film to be and what it ended up being pained him so greatly that for a time, he suffered a migraine just thinking about it, akin to a needle piercing his eye.

In the late 1990s, Cronenberg was announced as director of a sequel to another Verhoeven film, Basic Instinct, but this also fell through. His recent work, the thriller A History of Violence (2005), is one of his highest budgeted and most accessible to date. He has said that the decision to direct it was influenced by his having had to defer some of his salary on the low-budgeted Spider, but it is one of his most critically acclaimed films to date, along with Eastern Promises (2007) a film about the struggle of one man to gain power in the Russian Mafia.

Cronenberg has collaborated with composer Howard Shore on all of his films since The Brood (1979), (see List of noted film director and composer collaborations) with the exception of The Dead Zone (1983), which was scored by Michael Kamen. Other regular collaborators include actor Robert Silverman, art director Carol Spier, sound editor Bryan Day, film editor Ronald Sanders, his sister, costume designer Denise Cronenberg, and, from 1979 until 1988, cinematographer Mark Irwin. In 2008, Cronenberg directed Howard Shore's first opera, The Fly.

Since 1988's Dead Ringers, Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on each of his films (see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations). Suschitzky was the director of photography for , and Cronenberg remarked that Suschitzky's work in that film "was the only one of those movies that actually looked good", which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.

Having worked with many Hollywood stars, Cronenberg says that he did not get to make a film with an actor he wanted to work with for a long time, Burt Reynolds. Cronenberg remains a staunchly Canadian filmmaker, with nearly all of his films (including major studio vehicles The Dead Zone and The Fly) having been filmed in his home province Ontario. Notable exceptions include M. Butterfly and Spider, most of which were shot in China and England, respectively. Rabid and Shivers were shot in and around Montreal. Most of his films have been at least partially financed by Telefilm Canada, and Cronenberg is a vocal supporter of government-backed film projects, saying "Every country needs [a system of government grants] in order to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood".

Cronenberg has also appeared as an actor in other directors' films. Most of his roles are cameo appearances, as in Into The Night, Jason X, To Die For, and Alias, but on occasion he has played major roles, as in Nightbreed or Last Night. He has not played major roles in any of his own films, but he did put in a brief appearance as a gynecologist in The Fly; he can also be glimpsed among the sex-crazed hordes in Shivers; he can be heard as an unseen car-pound attendant in Crash; his hands can be glimpsed in eXistenZ; and he appeared as a stand-in for James Woods in Videodrome for shots in which Woods' character wore a helmet that covered his head.

In 2008 Cronenberg realized two extra-cinematographic projects: the exhibition Chromosomes at the Rome Film Fest and the opera The Fly at the LaOpera in Los Angeles and Theatre Châtelet in Paris.

Future projects

In July 2010, Cronenberg completed production on A Dangerous Method, an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, and frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen. The film was produced by independent British producer Jeremy Thomas.

He also plans to write and direct an adaptation of Don Delillo's Cosmopolis.

There have been reports of Cronenberg's interest in adapting the Jonathan Lethem's novel As She Climbed Across the Table, which would indicate for many fans the director's return to the fantasy science fiction genre. Steven Zaillian would be producing, along with his production company Film Rites.

The status of Cronenberg's spy thriller The Matarese Circle, based on Robert Ludlum's novel and starring Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise, remains rife with intrigue. In April 2009, it was announced that the project is on hold, due to MGM's financial problems.

Awards and recognition

He received the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for Crash.

In 1999, Cronenberg was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2006 he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d'Or.

Cronenberg has appeared on various "Greatest Director" lists. In 2004, Science Fiction magazine Strange Horizons named him the 2nd greatest director in the history of the genre, ahead of better known directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jean-Luc Godard and Ridley Scott. In the same year, The Guardian listed him 9th on their list of "The world's 40 best directors". In addition, in 2007, Total Film named him as the 17th greatest director of all-time.

In 2006, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars.

In 2009 Cronenberg received the Légion d'honneur from the government of France.

In 2010 Cronenberg was named an honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.

Filmography as director

Feature films

Stereo (1969)

Crimes of the Future (1970)

Shivers (1975)

Rabid (1977)

Fast Company (1979)

The Brood (1979)

Scanners (1981)

Videodrome (1983)

The Dead Zone (1983)

The Fly (1986)

Dead Ringers (1988)

Naked Lunch (1991)

M. Butterfly (1993)

Crash (1996)

eXistenZ (1999)

Spider (2002)

A History of Violence (2005)

Eastern Promises (2007)

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Short films

Transfer (1966)

From the Drain (1967)

Camera (2000)

To Each His Own Cinema (Chacun son cinéma) (2007)

* segment: At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World

Television series

Programme X

* episode: *Secret Weapons (1972)

Peep Show

* episodes: The Victim (1975) & The Lie Chair [1975]

Teleplay

* episode: The Italian Machine (1976) watch it here (RealMedia)

* episode: 1.12 Faith Healer (1987)

Scales of Justice

* episodes: Regina vs Horvath (1990) & Regina vs Logan (1990)

Television spots

Jim Ritchie Sculptor (1971)

Letter from Michelangelo (1971)

Tourettes (1971)

Don Valley (1972)

Fort York (1972)

Lakeshore (1972)

Winter Garden (1972)

Scarborough Bluffs (1972)

In the Dirt (1972)

Commercials

Hydro

* Client: Ontario Hydro

* Product: Energy conservation

* Agency: Burghardt Wolowich Crunkhorn

* Production company: The Partners' Film Company Ltd.

* Format: 4 x 30-second commercials

* Titles: Hot Showers, Laundry, Cleaners, Timers

Caramilk

* Client: William Neilson Ltd.

* Product: Cadbury Caramilk

* Agency: Scali McCabe, Sloves (Canada) Ltd.

* Production company: The Partners' Film Company Ltd.

* Format: 2 x 30-second commercials

* Titles: Bistro, Surveillance

Nike

* Client: Nike International

* Product: Nike Air 180

* Agency: Wieden and Kennedy

* Production company: The Partners' Film Company Ltd.

* Format: 1 x 15-second/4 x 30-second commercials

* Title: Transformation

Filmography as producer

Dead Ringers (1988)

Crash (1996)

I'm Losing You (1998)

Drone (2008)

Filmography as actor

Into the Night (1985)

The Fly (1986, cameo)

Nightbreed (1990)

To Die For (1995, cameo)

Blood and Donuts (1995)

The Stupids (1996, cameo)

Extreme Measures (1996, cameo)

Last Night (1998)

Resurrection (1999)

Jason X (2002)

Alias (TV) (2003) (Episodes "Remnants" and "Conscious")

Further reading

Mark Browning (2007): David Cronenberg: Author or Filmmaker? (ISBN 978-1-84150-173-4)

Thomas J. Dreibrodt (2000): Lang lebe das neue Fleisch. Die Filme von David Cronenberg — von 'Shivers' bis 'eXistenZ'. (academic; in German) (ISBN 978-3-932872-05-1)

Serge Grünberg, ed. (2006): David Cronenberg (interviews) (ISBN 978-0-85965-376-3)

Piers Handling (1983): The Shape of Rage: The Films of David Cronenberg (ISBN 978-0-7736-1137-5)

Kim Newman (1989): Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film 1968–1988 (ISBN 978-0-517-57366-2)

Drehli Robnik, Michael Palm, eds. (1992): Und das Wort ist Fleisch geworden. Texte über Filme von David Cronenberg. Vienna, PVS: 1992. ISBN 978-3-901196-02-7

Chris Rodley, ed. (1996): Cronenberg on Cronenberg (ISBN 978-0-571-19137-6)

Bibliographies

David Cronenberg Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

Red Cars Artist's book David Cronenberg, Volumina (2005)

References

External links

David Cronenberg at Rotten Tomatoes

An interview on Salon.com

An interview, circa 1999

Canadian Film Encyclopedia (A publication of The Film Reference Library/A division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group)

BBC interview with Cronenberg (Video, 2007-10-19)

Interview with Cronenberg by SBIFF at UCSB regarding his life, work and Eastern Promises

Interview with Cronenberg in Venice Magazine

Category:1943 births Category:Canadian atheists Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian film directors Category:Horror film directors Category:Canadian Jews Category:Jewish atheists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Category:Genie Award winners for Best Achievement in Direction Category:Légion d'honneur recipients Category:Jewish actors Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People from Toronto Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Living people Category:Genie Award winners for Best Screenplay

Name	Owl City
Landscape	Yes
Background	group_or_band
Genre	Synthpop Alternative
Origin	Owatonna, Minnesota, United States
Years active	2007–present
Label	Universal Republic
Associated acts	Sky Sailing, Swimming With Dolphins, Breanne Duren, Relient K, Port Blue, Armin van Buuren
Url
Current members	Adam Young

Owl City is an American synthpop musical project by Adam Young. Owl City was born from Young's musical experiments in his parents' basement in Owatonna, Minnesota. As Owl City, Young developed a following through MySpace before signing with Universal Republic.

Young claims that his influences are disco and European electronic music. His music has also been compared to The Postal Service. After two independent albums, Owl City gained mainstream popularity with the 2009 major label debut album Ocean Eyes, which spawned the hit single "Fireflies".

History

Early years (2007–08)

Suffering from insomnia while working in a Coca-Cola Factory in his hometown, Owatanna, Young turned to composing music. He began receiving attention for songs he had uploaded to MySpace, the "viral popularity" of which would later result in his signing to a major label. In 2007, Owl City released an EP titled Of June, followed by the 2008 release of the album Maybe I'm Dreaming. Of June reached #20 on the Billboard Electronic Albums chart, and Maybe I'm Dreaming peaked on the same chart at #16.

Ocean Eyes (2009-2010)

Owl City's third album, Ocean Eyes, was released on iTunes on July 14, 2009, with the physical release following on July 28, 2009. The album debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200. Owl City has released three official singles: "Umbrella Beach", "Vanilla Twilight",and "Fireflies". "Fireflies" topped the US and Canadian charts and became the most-downloaded song on iTunes in the US. Ocean Eyes reached the top ten on the US album charts and topped the US electronic charts and also reached Amazon MP3's top 10 most downloaded album list. By December 2009, it was certified Gold in the United States. On January 24, 2010, Owl City reached the number 1 spot in the UK Top 40 Singles chart with "Fireflies". The song "Tidal Wave" also received significant airplay on Christian music radio stations.

Young is joined by Breanne Düren on several tracks; the most noted being "The Saltwater Room". Owl City's live band consists of Breanne Duren (background vocals/keyboards), Matthew Decker (drums), Laura Musten (violin), and Hannah Schroeder (cello).

Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen has toured and collaborated with Owl City on several tracks, including "Fireflies", where Matt can be heard providing the backup vocals. Young also produced Relient K's song "Terminals". Thiessen stated that it is very likely that he and Young will produce a side project called "Goodbye Dubai" in the future.

"Fireflies" was released as a free download on the iPod/iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge 3 by Tapulous. Prior to the July 14, 2009 internet release of Ocean Eyes, and the "Fireflies" single, Steve Hoover was hired as a director for a music video for "Fireflies". The video was to have had an exclusive premiere on MySpace, but had been leaked onto YouTube and Dailymotion hours earlier. "Fireflies" became a big sleeper hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the week ending November 7, 2009.

Owl City is featured on Soundtrack 90210 with a song titled "Sunburn", which was released on October 13, 2009. Owl City has toured with The Scene Aesthetic and Brooke Waggoner. He was also guest featured in the soundtrack to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with a song that had already been featured in his debut album, "The Technicolor Phase".

All Things Bright & Beautiful (2010–present)

Young has revealed a new musical project known as Sky Sailing, moving away from his usual electronica genre of music and introducing acoustic guitar and piano accompaniments into his work. The unrefined tracks were recorded in the summer of 2007 before he began making music as Owl City. His first album under this new project is entitled An Airplane Carried Me to Bed, and was released July 13, 2010 via iTunes.

He also recently announced via Twitter that more music will soon be released under his main project, Owl City.

In May, 2010, Adam Young collaborated with high-profile British electronic composer, producer, musician, and songwriter Nick Bracegirdle. Under his Chicane alias, Bracegirdle released the single "Middledistancerunner" on 1 August 2010 featuring Adam Young on vocals. This will be the first single from the upcoming fourth Chicane album Giants.

He also worked with famed Dutch producer Armin van Buuren, appearing on a track called 'Youtopia' from the forthcoming van Buuren album Mirage on September 10, 2010.

On August 2, 2010, it was announced that Owl City would not open for Maroon 5 on the first three concerts of the American Leg of their tour due to a kidney stone.

He also stated on his Twitter, that he will release a song for the upcoming film, Legend of the Guardians, titled "To the Sky" which hit the Internet on September 1.

On September 1, 2010, Adam Young opened Owl City University as an interactive fan site with projects and homework including the integration with Facebook and Twitter. It is an area where other fans can join groups and communicate. It contains "projects" to complete to get credits. It includes messages directly from Adam Young as video blogs.

On September 21, 2010 "To the Sky" was officially released via iTunes on the soundtrack for Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole.

Young released a cover version of the praise and worship song "In Christ Alone" as a streaming mp3 on his website, , on October 25, 2010.

Concertgoers at Adam's halloween homecoming show were treated to a new song "Halloween in Owatonna", played by Matt Thiessen. Matt also announced that he is working with Adam on a song titled "Plant Life" for Owl City's upcoming album, confirmed by Adam Young and the Owatonna People's Press to be on track for a Spring 2011 release.

On November 13, 2010, a new album was also released for one of his other musical projects, "Windsor Airlift", called "Flight" on iTunes.

In the November 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone, Owl City announced the title of his third studio album, "All Things Bright & Beautiful". He also stated to "expect more guitar," and revealed the names of 3 tracks, "Deer in the Headlights," "The Honey and the Bee," and "Astronauts." The song "Deer in the Headlights" is expected to have "power chord blasts." The album is due to be released in Spring 2011.

On November 23, 2010, a new Christmas single called "Peppermint Winter" was released. A preview had been released the previous week on Facebook.

Musical styles and influences

Owl City has been stated to play within the musical genres of indietronica and alternative. Young has stated that he is inspired by disco and European electronic music.

Owl City also has been compared to The Postal Service, with a number of publications going as far as accusing Owl City of "ripping off" The Postal Service.

Ben Gibbard, lead singer/writer of both The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie has not stated anything about the musical resemblance in public. However, Chris Walla, the guitarist from Death Cab For Cutie, has stated that "Owl City should really consider buying Ben a pony."

Adam Young suggested in a 2009 interview with The New York Times that Owl City is perhaps the "next chapter" after The Postal Service: }}

Other projects

Young also produces music under a wide variety of other projects, some of which contain only a single song. These projects include Port Blue, Windsor Airlift, Dolphin Park, Insect Airport, Keehar, Seagull Orchestra, Sky Sailing and Swimming With Dolphins, among others.

Most of these projects were started before Owl City propelled Young to fame. Some are current side projects Adam is involved in. Some were formed alongside Adam's college friends as musical projects for a music course Young was studying at the time.

Concert tours

Discography

;Studio albums

Maybe I'm Dreaming (2008)

Ocean Eyes (2009)

All Things Bright & Beautiful (2011)

References

External links

Category:Musical groups from Minnesota Category:2000s music groups Category:2010s music groups Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:American indie rock groups Category:Living people Category:American electronic music groups Category:American New Wave musical groups Category:American Christians

Mackenzie Gray (born 22 November 1957 in Toronto) is a Canadian film, television, and stage actor.

After studying and working in London, England, he completed his training at the University of Toronto. He performed in independent films in England, but his first North American feature film was The Wars in 1983. A professional actor for over 30 years, he has appeared in over 130 films and television shows and was a series lead on a major US network.

He has worked on stage in Britain, Canada and the United States in hundreds of plays, musicals and cabarets, and has provided many voices for animated series, documentaries and video games.

In addition to performing, Mackenzie is a prolific director, writer and producer in film and theatre. He wrote vignettes and "shorts" for several episodes of "Sesame Street" (1984–1986) and was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the popular Toronto rock band The Fridge Stickers. Mackenzie has composed and recorded many songs, incidental music and scores for films, TV shows and Web features. In 2008, he co-produced the award winning feature film Poe: Last Days of The Raven. He taught Film History at The Art Institute Of Vancouver for 5 years and teaches Acting for Film at The University of British Columbia. He was a sitting member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Canadian Cinema for 4 years, as well as a voting member.

He is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom/Europe and Canada. He divides his time between Toronto and Vancouver.

External links

Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian film actors

Name	Gwendolyn Brooks
Birthname	Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks
Birthdate	June 07, 1917
Birthplace	Topeka, Kansas, USA
Deathdate	December 03, 2000
Deathplace	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	United States of America
Period	1930-2000
Genre	Poetry
Notableworks	Annie Allen
Spouse	Henry Blakely (m. 1939)
Awards

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American writer. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.

Biography

Gwendolyn Tamika Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas, to David Anderson Brooks and Keziah Wims, their first child. Her mother was a former school teacher who left teaching for marriage and motherhood, and her father, the son of a runaway slave who fought in the Civil War, had given up his ambition to become a doctor to work as a janitor because he could not afford to attend medical school. When Brooks was only six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she grew up. She went by the nickname, "Gwendie," which her close friends called her.

Her home life was stable and loving, although she encountered racial prejudice in her neighborhood and in her schools. She attended Hyde Park High School, the leading white high school in the city, before transferring to all-black Wendell Phillips. Brooks eventually attended an integrated school, Englewood High School. In 1936, she graduated from Wilson Junior College. These four schools gave her a perspective on racial dynamics in the city that continued to influence her work.

Her enthusiasm for reading and writing was encouraged by her parents. Her father provided a desk and bookshelves, and her mother took her, when she was in high school, to meet Harlem Renaissance poets Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson.

Career

Brooks published her first poem in a children's magazine at the age of thirteen. When Brooks was sixteen years old, she had compiled a portfolio of around seventy-five published poems. Aged 17, Brooks stuck to her roots and began submitting her work to "Lights and Shadows", the poetry column of the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper. Although her poems range in style from traditional ballads and sonnets to using blues rhythms in free verse, her characters are often drawn from the poor inner city. During this same period, she also attended Wilson Junior College, from where she graduated in 1936. After publishing more than seventy-five poems and failing to obtain a position with the Chicago Defender, Brooks began to work a series of typing jobs.

By 1941, Brooks was taking part in poetry workshops. One particularly influential workshop was organized by Inez Cunningham Stark. Stark was an affluent white woman with a strong literary background, and the workshop participants were all African-American. The group dynamic of Stark's workshop proved especially effective in energizing Brooks and her poetry began to be taken seriously (The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Alexander, Editor, 2005). In 1943 she received an award for poetry from the Midwestern Writers' Conference.

Her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville, published in 1945 by Harper and Row, brought her instant critical acclaim. She received her first Guggenheim Fellowship and was one of the “Ten Young Women of the Year” in Mademoiselle magazine. In 1950, she published her second book of poetry, Annie Allen, which won her Poetry magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, the first given to an African-American.

After John F. Kennedy invited her to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962, she began her career teaching creative writing. She taught at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, Clay College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1967, she attended a writer’s conference at Fisk University where, she said, she rediscovered her blackness. This rediscovery is reflected in her work In The Mecca, a book length poem about a mother searching for her lost child in a Chicago housing project. In The Mecca was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry.

In addition to the National Book Award nomination and the Pulitzer Prize, Brooks was made Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. In 1985, Brooks became the Library of Congress's Consultant in Poetry, a one year position whose title changed the next year to Poet Laureate. In 1988, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 1994, she was chosen as the National Endowment for the Humanities' Jefferson Lecturer, one of the highest honors for American literature and the highest award in the humanities given by the federal government. In 1995, she was presented with the National Medal of Arts. Other awards she received included the Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Brooks was awarded more than seventy-five honorary degrees from colleges and universities worldwide. In 1995, she was honored as the first Woman of the Year by the Harvard Black Men's Forum. On 1 May 1996 Brooks returned to her birthplace in Topeka, Kansas. She was the keynote speaker for the Third Annual Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council Women of Distinction Banquet and String of Pearls Auction. A ceremony was held in Brooks’ honor at a local park, located at 37th and Topeka Boulevard.

Personal life

In 1939, Brooks married Henry Blakely and gave birth to two children: Henry Blakely Jr., who was born in 1940, and Nora Blakely, who was born in 1951. Brooks died on December 3, 2000, aged 83, at her Southside Chicago home. She is buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.

Legacy

1970: Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center, Macomb, Illinois

1995: Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School, Aurora, Illinois

2000: Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, Chicago, Illinois

2001: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, Harvey, Illinois

2002: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, Oak Park, Illinois

2003: Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois State Library, Springfield, Illinois

2002: 100 Greatest African Americans.

2005: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, Bolingbrook, Illinois

Bibliography

Negro Hero (1945)

The Mother (1945)

A Street in Bronzeville (1945)

Annie Allen (1950)

Maud Martha (1953) (Fiction)

Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956)

The Bean Eaters (1960)

Selected Poems (1963)

We Real Cool (1966)

In the Mecca (1968)

Malcolm X (1968)

Family Pictures (1970)

Black Steel: Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali (1971)

The World of Gwendolyn Brooks (1971)

Aloneness (1971)

Report from Part One: An Autobiography (1972) (Prose)

A Capsule Course in Black Poetry Writing (1975) (Prose)

Aurora (1972)

Beckonings (1975)

Black Love (1981)

To Disembark (1981)

Primer for Blacks (1981) (Prose)

Young Poet's Primer (1981) (Prose)

Very Young Poets (1983) (Prose)

The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1986)

Blacks (1987)

Winnie (1988)

Children Coming Home (1991)

In Montgomery (2000)

See also

African American literature

List of African American firsts

References

External links

Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks at PoetryFoundation.org

Audio and Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks at Poets.org

Some poems by Brooks at the Circle Brotherhood Association

Gwendolyn Brooks at Modern American Poetry

Online guide to the Gwendolyn Brooks Papers, The Bancroft Library

"The Book Writers" Poem A poem, patterned after Brooks's "The Bean Eaters" is a dedication to the lives and legacies of Gwendolyn Brooks and Haki R. Madhubuti.

Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts

NPR interview with Gwendolyn Brooks

Category:African American poets Category:American poets Category:American Poets Laureate Category:American women writers Category:Cancer deaths in Illinois Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Writers from Illinois Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Topeka, Kansas Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Writers from Chicago, Illinois Category:1917 births Category:2000 deaths

Name	Evan Dando
Landscape	yes
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Evan Griffith Dando
Born	March 04, 1967
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar
Genre	Alternative, rock, punk
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Years active	1986–present
Associated acts	The Lemonheads
Notable instruments	Gibson SG

Evan Griffith Dando (born March 4, 1967) is an American musician, most famous for fronting the alternative rock band The Lemonheads. He is the only original member left in the current Lemonheads line-up, having served as lead singer since the band's original formation in 1986. He was married to English fashion model Elizabeth Moses until separating in 2010.

Biography

Early life and education

Evan Dando was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a fashion model and a real estate attorney. During his youth, Dando had gravitated towards such influential '80s punk outfits as Hüsker Dü and The Replacements. For high school, he attended the Commonwealth School, in Boston. Dando enrolled at Skidmore College, but he could not maintain his grades and dropped out to pursue a career as a musician.

The Lemonheads

Along with school friend Ben Deily, he formed The Lemonheads at the Commonwealth School in Boston in 1986. The Lemonheads played their first show on August 18, 1986. At this stage they played punk rock, and were briefly known as the Whelps, until a name change in 1987 led to the birth of the Lemonheads, after a candy which Dando noted was sweet on the outside, and sour on the inside, possibly a metaphor for the band's sound. Their first recording as a group was titled Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners. After being signed by local label Taang! The Lemonheads released the albums Hate Your Friends, Creator, and Lick with Deily and Dando sharing lead vocals and songwriting duties until about 1989, when Dando left the band.

However, the lure of a European tour and moderate success of single "Luka" brought Dando back on tour with the Lemonheads, where night after night he continually played the guitar riff of "Sweet Child o' Mine" during Deily's songs. The relationship had broken down, and Deily left.

Dando then recruited David Ryan on drums, was signed to major label Atlantic/Warner, and produced the album Lovey in 1990. Straddling punk, rock, country, and metal, the album sold roughly 30,000 copies. Dando cut his losses and flew to Australia to write some songs with friends Nic Dalton and Tom Morgan.

These songs formed the basis for It's a Shame About Ray, the Lemonheads' breakthrough album. However, a cover of "Mrs. Robinson" (recorded to promote the video release of The Graduate) was released to the annoyance of the band and brought them the most exposure they'd had so far. When the "Ray" album was reissued, the track was tagged on to the end. The band enjoyed quite a bit of success on college radio, and major mainstream exposure.

During 1992-1993, Dando's face appeared on many magazine covers. People magazine voted him one of the "50 Most Beautiful People." He also garnered attention in 1993 for admitting to smoking crack cocaine.

Still, a huge breakthrough single still eluded the band as they released Come on Feel the Lemonheads in late 1993. This was a successful album which included the tracks "Style" and "The Jello Fund." Once again, the band enjoyed mainstream success, this time with the single "Into Your Arms."

The Lemonheads then toured throughout 1994; Dando famously befriended Oasis and appeared at the band's live shows. He also spent time "hanging out" with Courtney Love.

Dando makes a quick cameo appearance at the end of the 1994 film Reality Bites.

Dando continued to appear in the pages of the music press with Juliana Hatfield.

In 1996, Dando assembled a new band, still called the Lemonheads, featuring old friends John Strohm and Murph (ex-Dinosaur Jr). This band produced another Lemonheads album, Car Button Cloth. While featuring jangly guitar songs such as "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You," this set also showed off the darker side of Dando's writing: "Break Me" and "Losing Your Mind."

The band toured successfully in 1997 and played a final gig at the Reading Festival, after which Dando promptly disappeared from view—due in no small part to his addiction to crack cocaine. Atlantic released The Best Of The Lemonheads in 1998.

Solo career and other bands

While working in Sydney, Australia with Nic Dalton and Tom Morgan, Dando worked closely with a number of Half A Cow artists and made minor appearances on the self titled album by the band Sneeze and the album Coastal by Godstar.

Dando recorded a duet with Juliana Hatfield for the 1999 album, . The two sang Gram Parsons' "$1000 Wedding". Their relationship inspired a line in the Barenaked Ladies' song "Jane" about a relationship gone sour which, according to the writer, could still work. The writer says that their current relationship offers "No promises as vague as heaven. No Juliana next to my Evan".

Dando started making public appearances again in late 2000 (having done "monitors for Enya"), singing with the Blake Babies and playing some acoustic shows. A full acoustic world tour kicked off in earnest in early 2001, with Dando garnering some rave reviews and renewed interest in his back catalogue. He played with Ben Lee and Ben Kweller, with several strong new songs, and seemed to regain a measure of confidence.

These shows led the way to Dando's first solo release, Live at the Brattle Theatre, which was released in Australia in 2001. In addition to a number of live songs from a Cambridge concert, the release also included a second disc with several covers of country songs.

Dando sings back-up on Mary Lorson's/Saint's Low's 2002 release Tricks for Dawn on the song "Long Way Down."

In March 2003, Dando finally released his first proper solo album, Baby I'm Bored, to critical acclaim and a top 40 placing on the UK albums chart. Described by many as a return to form, it allowed Dando to continue to tour, except this time with a full band.

As well as guesting with the reformed MC5, writing songs with The Dandy Warhols, collaborating with soundtrack composer Craig Armstrong, and having two tribute CDs recorded for him by fans through his fan site, Dando played several live dates, including a full performance of the It's A Shame About Ray album as part of All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back festival.

Lemonheads return

In 2005, Dando put together a new lineup for the Lemonheads, consisting of Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson (both most known for their work with pop-punk pioneers, the Descendents) and signed to Vagrant Records. A new self-titled Lemonheads album, produced and engineered by Stevenson, was released September 25 in the UK and September 26, 2006 in the United States. Since then, Dando (along with a new touring lineup featuring Vess Ruhtenberg and Devon Ashley of the Pieces) have toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America with bands such as Vietnam and Hymns.

Despite the lack of an album to support, Dando, along with a new lineup featuring Vess Ruhtenberg and P. David Hazel of Beta Male, began a tumultuous tour of Europe in August 2008.

An album of cover versions, Varshons, originally rumoured to be released September 16, 2008, was released in the United States on June 23, 2009.

Discography

Albums

Live at the Brattle Theatre (2001)

Baby I'm Bored (2003) (UK #30)

Singles

"Stop My Head" (UK #38)

"It Looks Like You" (UK #68)

Trivia

Ben Lee's song "I Wish I Was Him" is a tribute to Dando, who has often covered the song when performing live.

Mentioned in Kimya Dawson's song "The Beer."

The Swedish indie rock band, Hell on Wheels, mentions Evan Dando, as well as Mike Watt, in the song "One Sperm Across your Heart"

Briefly mentioned a couple of times throughout Bret Easton Ellis novel Glamorama.

References

External links

Evan Dando & Lemonheads fansite

The Lemonheads official site

Vox Interview And Biography

Interview with Evan Dando on AOL Music

Bar/None Records - Evan Dando

Russian site

Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:American male singers Category:The Lemonheads members Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Skidmore College alumni Category:American alternative rock musicians