Powerful Feminist Poets

by Havann Brown

Morgan Parker

Parker is the author of the critically acclaimed There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, her second collection of poetry in which she sheds light on mental health struggles, race, culture, trauma, and feminism by utilizing humor and unflinching honesty. In addition, she offers commentary on pop culture and her own personal experiences. Parker’s numerous accolades include receiving a Pushcart Prize in 2016 and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in 2017.

Diane di Prima

Di Prima has published over 40 books that often celebrate the strength of women without turning away from women’s vulnerability. She chronicles her experiences living as a woman in the typically male-dominated Beat scene in Memoirs of a Beatnik and in Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years. She has received numerous honors, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Poetry Association’s Lifetime Service Award.

Bushra Rehman

Rehman was raised in Corona, Queens, and uses her personal experiences growing up in her darkly comedic autobiographical novel Corona. She served as a co-editor of the anthology Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism which was named as one of Ms. Magazine’s “100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time.” Marianna’s Beauty Salon, Rehman’s debut poetry collection, uses biting humor and wisdom to interrogate the true meaning of the American Dream. Among her numerous accolades, Rehman has received recognition from Cave Canem, the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and Kundiman. 

Claudia Rankine

Rankine’s work Citizen: An American Lyric examines how race and gender are exploited. Citizen is the only book of poetry to ever become a New York Times bestseller in the category of nonfiction. Rankine’s beautiful yet straightforward voice is fresh and uninhibited. Rankine describes the journeys of women and their lives by detailing the discrimination that they face. She conveys the experience of being a Black woman in America in part by examining Serena Williams’s treatment by the tennis community and by the media. Rankine has received honors, including the PEN Open Book Award, PEN Literary Award, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Maggie Nelson

Nelson’s stunning lyric essay Bluets earned critical acclaim for its integration of academia with verse. Her poetic memoir The Argonauts offers meditation and analysis of her own romantic relationship, motherhood, family-making, and beyond. She has received the Glassock Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship and grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Nelson’s The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning earned distinction as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. 

*All photos obtained from Google

The Importance of Intersectionality

by Havann Brown

Photo retrieved from google

All inequality is not created equal. 

The term intersectionality was coined by civil rights activist and professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. It can be defined as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”  

Intersectional feminism centers on the voices of those experiencing overlapping forms of oppression to understand the depths of the inequalities and their relationships in any given context. By adding the idea of intersectionality to feminism, the movement becomes genuinely inclusive. It allows people of all races, economic standings, physical or mental abilities, ages, religions, identities, and orientations for their voices to be heard.

Using an intersectional lens also means recognizing the historical contexts surrounding an issue. Long histories of violence and systematic discrimination have created deep inequities that disadvantage some from the outset. These inequalities intersect with each other, for example, poverty, caste systems, racism, and sexism, denying people their rights and equal opportunities. The impacts extend across generations.

While issues ranging from discrimination based on gender identity to environmental burdens may seem separate at first, intersectional feminism illuminates the connections between all fights for justice and liberation. It shows us that fighting for equality means not only turning the tables on gender injustices, but also rooting out all forms of oppression. It serves as a framework to build inclusive, robust movements that simultaneously work to solve overlapping forms of discrimination.

Standing in solidarity with one another, questioning power structures, and speaking out against the root causes of inequalities are critical actions for building a future that leaves no one behind.

Providing Healing, Promoting Hope

By Havann Brown

“More and more women are realizing that only collective strength and action will allow us to be free to fight for the kind of society that meets basic human needs.” – Roxanne Dunbar, historian, writer, and activist.

During the month of March, we celebrate women who have made history, those in leadership roles, and the accomplishments made by women every day. In addition, the National Women’s History Alliance designates a yearly theme for Women’s History Month. This year, the theme is Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope. This theme is “both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.”

Women have been fighting to improve and enhance their quality of life for centuries. They have also historically led the way in mending divisions, healing wounds, and finding peaceful solutions. As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, women continue to be on the frontlines providing healing and hope to our communities.

The National Women’s History Alliance usually selects women to be national honorees, but this year, it’s encouraging groups around the country to use the theme to honor women locally.

“The NWHA encourages communities throughout the country to honor local women who bring and have historically brought these priceless gifts to their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods, sometimes at great sacrifice. These are the women who, as counselors and clerics, artists and teachers, doctors, nurses, mothers, and grandmothers listen, ease suffering, restore dignity, and make decisions for our general as well as our personal welfare,” according to a statement on the organization’s website.

Do you know a woman providing healing or promoting hope? If so, recognize her efforts!
To learn more about this year’s theme, click here.