Before Trump, Saturdays at our house were for reading and listening to music. Now they are for activism.
In 2021, I look forward to a return to literary pursuits.
Printing out this list for the books on it I haven't yet read.
In 2021, I look forward to a return to literary pursuits.
Printing out this list for the books on it I haven't yet read.
There are some lesbian writers on this list, notably my mentor Audre Lorde & the great Socialist activist Angela Davis, there should be more. I'd add Anita Cornwell, a groundbreaking black lesbian writer. I wrote this piece about her a few months ago.
epgn.com/news/local/146…
epgn.com/news/local/146…
I am also surprised Roxanne Gay is not on this list from our era, nor Phyllis Wheatly from the 18th century. I have taught both writers and recommend both for addition to this list. Everything Gay writes is tremendous and Wheatly was America's first published black woman author.
Here is one of Phyllis Wheatley's poems, "a hymn to the evening," if you are unfamiliar with her work.
poetryfoundation.org/poems/143633/a…
poetryfoundation.org/poems/143633/a…
Phyllis Wheatley was k
brought to the US as a slave when she was about seven. She was sold "for a trifle" as she was sickly, to a Boston family, who taught her to read and write. She became a celebrated writer, though still enslaved, and was a darling of abolitionists.
brought to the US as a slave when she was about seven. She was sold "for a trifle" as she was sickly, to a Boston family, who taught her to read and write. She became a celebrated writer, though still enslaved, and was a darling of abolitionists.
Wheatley's work was published widely at the time--her 1st poems were printed when she was 13, her 1st book when she was 18. Tragically, she died at only 31, in poverty, along with her child. Her work is critical to both the abolitionist movement & the canon of black literature.
*I see that auto-correct changed the spelling of Roxane Gay's name in my original tweet, which a helpful reader alerted me to. One n, not two.
While Gay writes everything, I found Bad Feminist and Hunger to be incredibly important books. They belong in every feminist library.
While Gay writes everything, I found Bad Feminist and Hunger to be incredibly important books. They belong in every feminist library.
If you want a book of fiction by Roxane Gay, I recommend her book of short stories, Difficult Women.
