“Poets are some of feminism’s most influential activists, theorists, and spokeswomen; at the same time, poetry has become a favorite means of self-expression, consciousness-raising and communication.” Jan Clausen, A Movement […]
Author: Julie Enszer
Is This A Photo of Emily Dickinson? And Will It Tell Us Who She Loved?
Emily Dickinson’s highly compressed, powerful poems inspire legions of readers, and Dickinson is one of the most widely revered and critically engaged women writers. Dickinson matters, not only to readers […]
National Poetry Month: Rita Mae Brown’s Army of Lovers
Over the past few weeks, we’ve celebrated National Poetry Month on the Ms. Blog with landmark poems from Joan Larkin, Pat Parker, Fran Winant and the anonymous authors of Because […]
National Poetry Month: “Poems By Working-Class Dykes”
In 1973, Ain’t I a Woman, a feminist newspaper in Iowa City, published and distributed the anthology Because Mourning Sickness is a Staple in My Country, an anonymous collection of […]
National Poetry Month: Yesterday (About Gertrude and Alice)
In her 1975 poem “Yesterday,” New York-based poet Fran Winant assumes the voice of Gertrude Stein addressing her lover, Alice B. Toklas. The poem animated what lesbians of 1970s knew […]
National Poetry Month: “Have You Ever Tried To Hide?”
The iconic feminist poet Pat Parker was known not only for her printed work but also for her powerful performances. Parker’s activism with the Black Panther Party and the Black […]
National Poetry Month: “Vagina” Sonnet and Other Poems That Drove Feminism
In her introduction to Poems from the Women’s Movement, Honor Moore recollects a friend saying, “The women’s movement was poetry.” The women’s movement was–and is–many things, and poetry was–and is–a […]
Black Herstory: A Poetic Call to Justice From Lesbian Feminists
The murders of Black women in Boston in the late 1970s incited feminist activists; they also prompted poets like Stephanie Byrd to address racist violence in their work.