Muriel Rukeyser was born on this day in 1913. She is one of my favourite poets.

"One of her favourite assignments for her poetry writing students was to begin a poem with the words 'I could not say.'" #MurielRukeyser Six books by Muriel Rukeyser
So many poems I love by her, including this one which is especially resonant.

Poem is from The Speed of Darkness, published in 1968. How resonant is what she describes these days? #MurielRukeyser poetryfoundation.org/poems/47657/po…
Here is an animated version of Poem #MurielRukeyser poetryfoundation.org/video/146443/p…
“Most mornings I would be more or less insane,
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories,
The news would pour out of various devices
....
I would call my friends on other devices;
They would be more or less mad for similar reasons.” #MurielRukeyser
How documentary form and anarchist principles she encountered in Catalonia helped #MurielRukeyser's writing - from intro to Savage Coast (text in jpgs from here) theparisreview.org/blog/2013/06/1…
How #MurielRukeyser broke silences and taboos that imposed "modesty" on women - from intro to Muriel Rukeyser: Out of Silence (apologies I don’t have a link for this)
“the year whose fires would not stop.”

I’ve read that line from a poem she wrote for Otto Boch so many times, and I saw their revolutionary love that began at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Now I see this line.
#MurielRukeyser atomikaztex.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/for…
“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.”

#MurielRukeyser wrote that in 1968, even though she’d been splitting the world open for decades already,” @sweetmachineSP the-toast.net/2013/11/01/mur… Front page and headline of article “Muriel Rukeyser (1913-
“She’d gone from literary wunderkind to lefty pariah to feminist heroine precisely because of her commitment to telling the truth–about one woman’s life, yes, but also about many, many women’s lives, about the lives that weren’t yet celebrated in poetry.”
“When you said you loved me, I saw the future stand up
free and alive...
...........
When I left you, you stood on the pier and held
your face up and never smiled, saying what we had found
was a gift of the revolution...”
- Muriel Rukeyser, For O. B.
Read more about #MurielRukeyser and explore some of her poems poetryfoundation.org/poets/muriel-r…

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More from @monaeltahawy

17 Dec
The chapter on Profanity in my latest book The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls explains all of this Tweet by Axios: SCOOP: Some...
Also: Fuck is a Feminist word

“When the fascist fucks in your country use a pandemic to tighten their grip on your body with a near total ban on abortion, the path to freedom must be paved with profanity. Politeness is capitulation.”

feministgiant.com/p/fuck-is-a-fe…
Fuck civility
Read 11 tweets
16 Dec
Freedom is astonishing & breathtaking. Freedom is terrifying when those who insist on that freedom are those whose submission you have been socialized into believing is your bequeathed right.

For 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring, new essay on Thursday feministgiant.com/p/coming-soon?…
This week is the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring.

This is the dedication of my book:

To the girls of the Middle East and North Africa: Be immodest, rebel, disobey, and know you deserve to be free. #FeministRevolution To the girls of the Middle ...Cover of Headscarves and Hy...
“Rise up, women wake up! As in the struggle workers are engaged in against capitalists to break down the class system, our demands for freedom and equality with men...will not be won if we do not raise our voices, if no blood is shed.”
- Kanno Sugako, 1906 #FeministRevolution Kanji from the waist up, in...
Read 10 tweets
16 Dec
Will there be a #COVID19 #stimulus this week or will Congress continue to tell Americans to go fuck themselves?
People are stealing bread, pasta and baby formula to survive.

At end of December, millions of Americans could lose their homes when a moratorium on evictions expires & 12mln long-term jobless and gig workers will lose supplemental federal unemployment benefits.

Unconscionable
If I had children I would not just steal to feed them, I would set the world on fire for them. 

We should all set fire to a world that allows anyone’s children to go hungry.
Read 4 tweets
15 Dec
In #Egypt, women are criminalized, slut-shamed & silenced when they demand justice for being sexually assaulted and their social media pics are used against them. Meanwhile, Egyptian police cadets on display for Sisi feministgiant.substack.com/p/essay-macho-…
And #Egyptian male celebrities are celebrated for social media posts like these while women are criminalized and slut shamed for their pictures - fully clothed - on social media On the left is celerity Bassem Youssef from the waist up shi
The preening hypermasculinity comes at a time in #Egypt when unprecedented number of women are exposing sexual assault. Sisi’s regime is trying to terrorize women into silence, whether via the arrests witnesses in support of a gang rape victim or imprisonment of the TikTok women.
Read 11 tweets
15 Dec
This week is 10th anniv of the Arab Spring, when #Tunisia rose up vs long-time dictator Ben Ali. Article soon but for now:
- In Tunisia, there was a fistfight in parliament after conservative lawmaker called single mothers "whores." Feminist protests vs him called "distractions"
- In Saudi Arabia, feminist activist Loujain al-Hathloul is on trial in a terrorism court for campaigning for women's rights.
- In Palestine, the brothers and brother-in-law of a woman they beat to death last year for posting a picture with her fiance have just been released.
- In Egypt, a woman is being criminalized and threatened with jail for exposing her sexual harassment, female TiK Tok users are in prison for "violating family values" and witnesses in a gang rape case are in detention.

Fuck the patriarchy.
Read 4 tweets
15 Dec
“I’m asking anyone who can to help me. I was subjected to gang sexual harassment. When I tried to file a complaint they threatened to kill me & throw acid at me. They’re using pics from my private IG account vs me & I will be detained. I’m the victim. Why should I be detained?”
This is an #Egyptian woman who sent out a call for help. As revenge & to silence her, the lawyer of the men she says sexually harassed her has accused her of “violating family values.”
The #Egyptian regime has used that charge this year to convict and imprison female TikTok users. The regime has also detained witnesses in a gang rape case This is Egypt a month before the 10th anniversary of #Jan25. Background 👇🏽 feministgiant.com/p/why-do-they-…
Read 7 tweets

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