Butterflies in Bronzeville

The city of Chicago is known for many things, both good and bad, but it is also a city of neighborhoods. Set on the city’s south side, A community equal to Harlem, New York in African American pride and culture, is the setting of this story. Bronzeville. It was a magical place--a true source of pride for the African American community. It was a cool, hip, beautiful place where being Black and proud was normal. Important people lived there, like civil rights leader Ida B. Wells, aviator Bessie Coleman, trumpeter and jazz great Louis Armstrong, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, novelist Richard Wright, playwright, Lorraine Hansberry, the late Ebony founder and publisher, John H. Johnson, to name a few, and blues greats Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy. There were doctors, lawyers, politicians, athletes, academics, and other notables who called Bronzeville home. Bronzeville was the center of Black Metropolis in Chicago. It was a place where you could get a shoe shine and then go next door for a doctor’s appointment. Hard working middle class Black folks rubbed shoulders with the crème de la crème of the Black Elite. Butterflies in Bronzeville is a "feel good" story about true love and lifelong friendship. It's the first book of a planned sequel. Gwynette Burgess, and Gwynette's best friend, Bonita "Bunny" Thompson are the butterflies in this tale; each transforming everyone they encounter.