Brown Girl Dreaming: Part I

by Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of autobiographical poems, Jacqueline Woodson vividly brings her childhood and adolescence to life. This memoir in verse won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Newbery Honor Award.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V–Author's Note

Here is a link to our list for Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. barren
    providing no shelter or sustenance
    Hold fast to dreams
    For if dreams die
    Life is a broken-winged bird
    That cannot fly.

    Hold fast to dreams
    For when dreams go
    Life is a barren field
    Frozen with snow.
    —Langston Hughes
  2. constellation
    a configuration of stars as seen from the earth
    I am born not long from the time
    or far from the place
    where
    my great-great-grandparents
    worked the deep rich land
    unfree
    dawn till dusk
    unpaid
    drank cool water from scooped-out gourds
    looked up and followed
    the sky's mirrored constellation
    to freedom.
  3. explode
    be unleashed; emerge with violence or noise
    I am born as the South explodes,
    too many people too many years
    enslaved, then emancipated
    but not free, the people
    who look like me
    keep fighting
    and marching
    and getting killed
    so that today —
    February 12, 1963
    and every day from this moment on,
    brown children like me can grow up
    free. Can grow up
    learning and voting and walking and riding
    whenever we want.
  4. emancipate
    free from slavery or servitude
    I am born as the South explodes,
    too many people too many years
    enslaved, then emancipated
    but not free, the people
    who look like me
    keep fighting
    and marching
    and getting killed
    so that today —
    February 12, 1963
    and every day from this moment on,
    brown children like me can grow up
    free. Can grow up
    learning and voting and walking and riding
    whenever we want.
  5. protest
    a public manifestation of dissent
    I am born Negro here and Colored there
    and somewhere else,
    the Freedom Singers have linked arms,
    their protests rising into song:Deep in my heart, I do believe
    that we shall overcome someday.
  6. overcome
    win a victory over
    Deep in my heart, I do believe
    that we shall overcome someday.
  7. injustice
    the practice of being unfair
    and somewhere else, James Baldwin
    is writing about injustice, each novel,
    each essay, changing the world.
  8. monument
    a structure erected to commemorate persons or events
    A long time dead but living still
    among the other soldiers
    on that monument in Washington, D.C.
  9. scholarship
    financial aid provided to a student on the basis of merit
    My father dreamed football dreams,
    and woke to a scholarship
    at Ohio State University.
  10. static
    angry criticism
    Through all that static and squawking, I heard
    your mama telling me you'd come.
  11. lullaby
    a quiet song intended to help a child go to sleep
    Somewhere in my brain
    each laugh, tear and lullaby
    becomes memory.
  12. lilt
    a jaunty rhythm in music or speech
    Ohio will never be home,
    no matter
    how many plants she brings
    indoors each winter, singing softly to them,
    the lilt of her words a breath
    of warm air moving over each leaf.
  13. gleaming
    bright with a steady but subdued shining
    My mother throws her head back,
    her newly pressed and curled hair gleaming
    her smile the same one she had
    before she left for Columbus.
  14. embroider
    decorate with needlework
    Welcome home, my grandparents say.
    Their warm brown
    arms around us. A white handkerchief,
    embroidered with blue
    to wipe away my mother's tears. And me,
    the new baby, set deep
    inside this love.
  15. porcelain
    ceramic ware made of a more or less translucent ceramic
    After the sweet tea is poured into mason jars
    twisted tight
    and the deviled eggs are scooped back inside
    their egg-white beds
    slipped into porcelain bowls that are my mother's now,
    a gift
    her mother sends with her on the journey...
Created on Wed Dec 02 13:07:30 EST 2015 (updated Tue Aug 05 10:35:42 EDT 2025)

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