#women poets

[sh4rpobjects]

Sylvia Plath Photographed at the Beach (1954)

[sfsolstice]

S. F. Solstice, "A Call"

[uwmspeccoll]

International Women's Day

In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8), we’re showcasing one of writer, educator, intersectional feminist, poet, civil rights activist, and former New York public school librarian Audre Lorde’s (1934–1992) early collections of poetry. From a Land Where Other People Live was published in 1973 by Detroit’s groundbreaking Broadside Press. This independent press was founded in 1965 by poet, University of Detroit librarian, and Detroit’s first poet laureate Dudley Randall (1914-2000) with the mission to publish the leading African American poetry of the time in a well-designed format that was also "accessible to the widest possible audience." A comprehensive catalog of Broadside Press’s impressive roster of artists (including Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, and Alice Walker, to name a few), titled Broadside Authors and Artists: An Illustrated Biographical Directory, was published in 1974 by educator and fellow University of Detroit librarian Leaonead Pack Drain-Bailey (1906-1983).  

Lorde described herself in an interview with Callaloo Literary Journal in 1990 as “a Black, Lesbian, Feminist, warrior, poet, mother doing [her] work”. She dedicated her life to “confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.” From a Land Where Other People Live is a powerfully intimate expression of her personal struggles with identity and her deeply rooted critiques of social injustice. The work was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1974, the same year that Broadside Press published New York Head Shop and Museum, another volume of Lorde’s poetry featured in our collection. You can find more information on her writings and on the organization inspired by her life and work by visiting The Audre Lorde Project.     

More posts on Broadside Press publications  

More Women’s History Month posts  

More International Women’s Day posts  

-- Ana, Special Collections Graduate Fieldworker 

[bluerain111]

[laylaslibrary]

"and if yearning had a shape, it would look awfully a lot like me"

fatima aamer bilal, from my heart has claws

[cutenervousyoungthing]

[queerism1969]

[myleeehhhhh]

Each time a woman walks into a voting booth, swipes her credit card, or uses birth control, we see the power of centuries of angry women.

-anonymous

[naeemajusthasthoughts]

Echoes

I think about it all the time the unresponsive fights and all the make believes I had to endure, dissociated from the storm I don't know you anymore. Perhaps in another life when life was much more simpler unimaginative, black and blue undercovered from all that was due, strayed from what was knew it became a life that dewed. There was no other time a tomb filled with all those lies and the grace of a grave that hole was made out of pain, truth and lies. They became my rain leaving out all those harsh thorns its pierced my heart, bleeding the lost cause dry. My faith died that day pushed me away, now, I have to do it all again.

[sakshinarula]

You don't become a poet. The poems find you because you are one.

- Sakshi Narula

[maxinewisewrites]

White sweater, a cup of piping tea

nowhere to go except deep within.

On my own as always happy with

these choices selected from a deck.

Snow’s melting down, a choice made

by the Earth to cry down a little more.

Water-soaked letters piled on the counter

singing carols of doom and gloom.

Mundane-flavoured days to go around

for all the dreamers who forget to open

their eyes at the first glimpse of dawn.

[lunaruels]

To be loved is a beautiful thing and I’ve felt it firsthand, not from the men that wanted to touch my body but from the women that wanted to touch my heart.

- via lunaruels

[sfsolstice]

S. F. Solstice, "A Piece of You"

[tanyaluca]

The Loneliness of Poets…

Tanya Luca

[paloma-pan]

[itimetraveller]

In my eyes you were beautiful

You didn't have to change

You let your demons take over you

Society played on you mind games

Insecurities caused so much pain

And you ended up drifting away

Maybe it was meant to happen this way.