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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION HONORING POET TYEHIMBA JESS ON RECEIVING THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE
WHEREAS, born in Detroit, poet Tyehimba Jess came to Cook County after high school to attend the University of Chicago where he earned his bachelor’s degree in public policy in 1991 followed by an MFA from New York University; and
WHEREAS, during his 18 years living in Chicago, Mr. Jess was a two-time member of the Chicago Green Mill Slam team and a prominent voice in Chicago’s poetry scene where he showcased his work as a writer and spoken word performer; and
WHEREAS, Tyehimba Jess is currently poetry and fiction editor of African American Review and professor of English at the College of Staten Island (New York), having also previously taught at the Juilliard School and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and
WHEREAS, Tyehimba Jess has won numerous awards over the course of his career, and most recently became the recipient of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his second book Olio, where he weaves sonnet, song, and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded African American performers directly before and after the Civil War up to World War I; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Jess has had an illustrious career, with honors including a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award, and a Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, along with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown; and
NOW, THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners commends Tyehimba Jess for winning the illustrious Pulitzer Prize and thanks him for his many contributions to Chicago and Cook County’s urban fine arts and poetry communities; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this text be spread upon the official proceedings of this Honorable Body and official copy be given to Tyehimba Jess in honor of his many achievements.
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