Poetry has always been a powerful tool for women to verbalize their lived experiences and inspire others with their resilience against patriarchal constrictions. As National Poetry Month comes to an end, we’re honoring women poets who defied literary norms, navigated cross-cultural boundaries and revolutionized what we consider poetry.
Tag: Poetry
Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of the Last Year
Happy April, and Happy National Poetry Month.
I find it so refreshing and inspiring to read beautiful collections each year and share them with you. Here are 78 of the most exciting and extraordinary I’ve read in the last year.
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South (May 1974)
From the May 1974 issue of Ms. magazine:
“What did it mean for a Black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers’ time? It is a question with an answer cruel enough to stop the blood. … How was the creativity of the Black woman kept alive, year after year and century after century, when for most of the years Black people have been in America, it was a punishable crime for a Black person to read or write? … The agony of the lives of women who might have been Poets, Novelists, Essayists and Short Story Writers, who died with their real gifts stifled within them.”
Sundance 2023: Documentary Exploring Nikki Giovanni’s Life and Work Echoes the Beauty of the Artist’s Mind
Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, winner of this year’s U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, is a journey through poet Nikki Giovanni’s memories and experiences—a cogent and beautiful assemblage of an artist’s life.
Our Abortion Stories: ‘My Abortion Was the Beginning of Getting My Life Back’
Last summer, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. A series from Ms. Our Abortion Stories chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story.
Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.
‘Dark Energy’: Poetry for Harriet Tubman
Last year marked 200 years since Harriet Tubman’s birth. To commemorate Tubman’s bicentennial, Ms. magazine launched the Tubman 200 project, honoring her extraordinary legacy.
The multi-disciplinary project included: conversations with Tubman’s descendants; an interactive timeline of Tubman’s life; essays from experts including Dr. Keisha N. Blain and Kate Clifford Larson; a calculator that determines what the U.S. (literally) owes Tubman; a portal for readers to submit their own haikus celebrating Tubman’s legacy; and original poetry—including the show-stopping “dark energy” by scholar and poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
Ms. Muse: A Short History of Falling in Love with Words, and Becoming a Girl with a Voice
Ms. Muse is a discovery place for riotous, righteous and resonant feminist poetry that nourishes and gives voice to a rising tide of resistance—brought to you by Ms. digital columnist Chivas Sandage.
What childhood experiences with language informed your relationship with poetry and life? How did you first find your voice?
2022 ‘Best of the Rest’: Our Favorite Books of the Year!
Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. And each year, we review our monthly Reads for the Rest of Us lists and choose our favorite books of the year.
You’ve read the other “Best of” lists—now read the other one. You know, for the rest of us. Here they are, my top 40+ feminist books, in alphabetical order.
Ms. Muse: Melissa Studdard on the Power of Poetry to Create the World We Want
Ms. Muse is a discovery place for riotous, righteous and resonant feminist poetry that nourishes and gives voice to a rising tide of female resistance.
How do you redeem a woman’s worst nightmare lived—or at least one of them? How do you give a mute, silenced or dead woman a voice? These are a few of the questions answered by Melissa Studdard’s poems.
“after I died / I put my clothes back on. / Like women do. / When everything has been taken.”
November 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us
As you settle into eclipse season and any special days you may celebrate, keep an eye on your favorite reading chair and insist upon using it regularly, with one of these 31 titles or a favorite of your own.