Pulitzer-winner Kendrick Lamar just made history

Rapper Kendrick Lamar was the first non-classical or jazz artist to win a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for his album DAMN. Jeffrey Brown joins Judy Woodruff to discuss some of the recipients in areas of literature and music.

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As we reported earlier, recipients
of the Pulitzer Prize were announced today,

and they included winners in literature, music,
and the arts.

Jeffrey Brown is with us from Boston to run
through some of them.

Hi, Jeff.

Hi, Judy.

So, winner in music, a big
surprise, Kendrick Lamar.

Yes, that is a really big surprise, Judy.

As you know, the Pulitzer Prize in music almost
always has gone to someone in the world of

contemporary classical music.

Twice, it has gone to some jazz greats, but
that didn't even happen until 1997.

The first was Wynton Marsalis.

And then in 2007 was the great Ornette Coleman.

But here we have Kendrick Lamar from the world
of popular music, for one, and, even more,

rap music, which has never happened before.

So, it's quite interesting.

There's no question about his bona fides as
one of the great wordsmiths and musicians

of popular music today, but it is very interesting
to think about the values of music and what's

being honored by something like the Pulitzer.

It's quite new.

Of course, it happened -- one analogy we could
think is Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize

a couple of years ago.

Quite controversial.

He was getting the prize for literature as
a poet, but here he was a musician and folk

singer.

Kendrick Lamar is certainly a musician, certainly
doing music, but this is quite new for the

Pulitzers.

Well, I confess I'm a fan of
Kendrick Lamar, so good for him.

Now, Jeff, there were some other interesting
winners, writers, other categories of the

Pulitzer Prize.

Tell us about a couple of those.

Now, I can tell you about a
few of them.

The winner in poetry was Frank Bidart.

Frank is a very renowned elder statesman at
this point.

And he won for his -- it's called "Half-light,"
and it's collected poems.

And so this is clearly honoring him for many
decades of wonderful work.

He's best known for his dramatic monologues,
longer poems in which he sort of uses a dramatic

character, sometimes a real character, and
puts it into poetic form.

The winner in nonfiction, some of our "NewsHour"
viewers will remember because I interviewed

him, James Forman Jr.

It's for long "Locking Up Our Own."

It's about crime and punishment in America,
and very timely look at many kinds of issues,

particularly around race, involving the criminal
justice system.

And in the world of biography, this one interested
me.

The book is "Prairie Fires."

The winner is Caroline Fraser.

It's a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

And this is the little home on the prairie book.

So, a lot of people have read these books.

I have been reading it myself.

It's framing Laura Ingalls Wilder, but in
a much larger picture about the settlement

of the American West, of course, the prairie
and the pioneers on the prairie.

Thank you very much.

A reminder that these
Pulitzers extend

beyond journalism to so many
areas of culture and our life.

Jeffrey Brown, thank you.

Thanks, Judy.