It’s Black History Month 2020, and I have created a list of 5 classic books by Black Lesbian poets. These books speak of truth, pain, love and joy.
Black History Month is celebrated annually in February (in North America). It originated in America in 1926 as “Negro History Week”. It was revised as Black History Month in 1970.
The month has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and is observed around the world. Black History Month calls to mind important people and events in the history of the African diaspora.
Whether you are looking for words of protest, love or anger, you will find it in these books.
1. The Days Of Good Looks by Cheryl Clarke
The Days Of Good Looks by Cheryl Clarke was lauded by luminaries such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Joy Harjo. Clarke has spoken on behalf of the black, feminist and gay movements for more than 25 years. The Days of Good Looks — her first new book of poetry in a decade — collects the author’s most popular poems and essays along with an array of new unpublished writing.
2. The Complete Works of Pat Parker by Pat Parker
This collection is a revelation. Edited by scholar and poet Julie R. Enszer and with over 100 pages of for the most part previously unpublished poems from Parker’s archives, it broadens our understanding of Pat Parker as a poet and radical activist. Featuring two plays, a selection of speeches, and prose piecesincluding fragments of an unfinished autobiography as well as poetry from manuscripts and all of her booksThe Complete Works of Pat Parker allows us to see the author as a constantly working artist and thinker, as well as an important part of the gay rights, women’s liberation, and black civil rights movements.
3. Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches by Audre Lorde
Sister Outsider is the essential collection of writings by Black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde. Lorde is one of the most influential voices in twentieth-century literature.
In fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.
4. No Language Is Neutral by Dionne Brand
Dionne Brand’s No Language Is Neutral (1990) is a set of poems that can be understood as a meditation on migration. The book addresses the theme of movement from one location to another as it describes a journey from the Caribbean to Canada. In doing so, it outlines (and asks questions about) a conception of identity that is influenced by movement, dislocation, and variability. Brand’s engagement with migration also asks questions about the nation-state; Benedict Anderson regards the nation-state as the result of a collective imagining that is shaped by hegemonic or dominant values (44), and writers like Brand question this illusion of cultural unity.
5. Convincing the Body by Cheryl Boyce Taylor
Convincing the Body is poet Cheryl Boyce Taylor’s third book – and it is an experience you do not want to miss. Lush, expressive and always abundantly edifying, Boyce Taylor’s poems are not merely written, but lived. Divided into six chapters, this work unflinchingly addresses love, war, sex and devotion. As always, Boyce Taylor’s dense poems invite multiple readings and leave readers full and satisfied. Convincing the Body does more than delve into the poet’s preoccupations – it’s a document of healing. It will convince your body, and your heart.
