Amazon.com Review This is the new, expanded edition of a groundbreaking volume of poetry first published in 1978, 11 years before Parker’s early death of breast cancer. Based in the Bay Area and steeped in the radical politics of the late 1960s, Parker was the contemporary of Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka. In her introduction, Cheryl Clarke identifies Parker as a ‘lead voice and caller’ in the lesbian-feminist cultural scene, but chides her for careless editing, as if Parker feared that her vernacular poems would lose their power if she subjected them to cold critique. Her most potent works do rely on an inspired punch line rather than carefully plumed images or language, as in ‘For Willyce,’ when she describes making love to a woman:
and your sounds drift down oh god! oh jesus! and i think here it is, some dude’s getting credit for what a woman has done again.
A distinguished collection, including previously unpublished work and tributes from many of Parker’s friends and allies. –Regina Marler
Genre: Black Interest; Grier Rated; Poetry
Subjects: African American lesbians - Poetry; African Americans - Poetry
Publication History
| ISBN | 9781563411083 |
|---|---|
| Copyright Date | 1978 |
| Publication Date | 1978 |
| Publisher | Diana Press |
| Format | Hardcover |
| No. of Pages | 157 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | Great |
| ISBN | 9781563411083 |
|---|---|
| Copyright Date | 1990 |
| Publication Date | February 1990 |
| Publisher | Firebrand Books |
| Format | Trade Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 157 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | Great |
| ISBN | 9781563411083 |
|---|---|
| Copyright Date | 1999 |
| Publication Date | February 1999 |
| Publisher | Firebrand Books |
| Format | Trade Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 208 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | Great |
Comment
Movement in Black: The Collected Poetry of Pat Parker, 1961-1978 was published by Diana Press in Oakland in 1978, with a foreword by Audre Lorde and an introduction by Judy Grahn. When Diana Press closed in 1979 the book went out of print. Crossing Press reissued it in 1983, and Firebrand Books published an expanded edition with an introduction by Cheryl Clarke in 1999.
Parker was a Black lesbian feminist poet and activist who helped found the Women's Press Collective and directed the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center. The poems are arranged in sections on marriage, liberation fronts, being gay and love, and they speak as directly to Black women's survival as to lesbian life. The collection remains a key text of Black lesbian poetry.