Cherríe Moraga

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cherríe L. Moraga (born 25 September 1952) is an Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright.

Moraga was born in Whittier, California. She earned her Bachelor's degree from a college in Hollywood, California and her Master's from San Francisco State University in 1980. Of both Anglo and Mexican American heritage, her writing focuses on her experiences as a Chicana lesbian.

Moraga has taught courses in dramatic arts and writing at various universities across the nation, and is currently an artist in residence at Stanford University. Her latest play, Watsonville, enjoyed a successful run in San Francisco last year.

She is perhaps best known for co-editing, with Gloria Anzaldúa, the anthology of feminist thought This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Along with Ana Castillo and Norma Alarcon, she adapted this anthology into the Spanish-language Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercermundistas en los Estados Unidos. Writings in the anthology, along with works by other prominent feminists of color, call for more a greater prominence within feminism for race-related subjectivities, and ultimately laid the foundation for third wave feminism.

[edit] Selected bibliography

• Watsonville : some place not here ; Circle in the dirt : el pueblo de East Palo Alto (2002). Albuquerque: West End Press. ISBN 0970534450.
• The Hungry Woman (2001). Albuquerque: West End Press. ISBN 097053440X
• Waiting in the Wings: Portrait of a Queer Motherhood (1997) Ithaca: Firebrand Books. ISBN 1563410931.
• "Art in America Con Acento" (1994). Anthologized in Women Writing Resistance : essays on Latin America and the Caribbean (2003). Cambridge, Massachusetts : South End Press. ISBN 0896087085.
• Heroes and Saints & Other Plays (1994). Albuquerque: West End Press. ISBN 0931122740.
• The Sexuality of Latinas (co-editor, 1993). Berkeley: Third Woman Press. ISBN 0943219000.
• The Last Generation: Prose and Poetry (1993). Boston: South End Press. ISBN 0896084671
• Shadow of a Man (1992)
• Cuentos: Stories By Latinas (co-editor, 1983). New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press. ISBN 0913175013.
• Giving Up The Ghost: Teatro in Two Acts (1986). Los Angeles: West End Press. ISBN 0931122430.
• Loving In The War Years: Lo que Nunca Pasó por sus Labios (1983). Boston: South End Press. ISBN 0896081958.
• This Bridge Called My Back (co-editor, 1981). Watertown, Massachusetts: Persephone Press. ISBN 0943219221
• Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercermundistas en los Estados Unidos (co-editor, 1988). San Francisco: ism press. ISBN 0910383197.

[edit] Awards

• National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholars Award, 2001.

• David R. Kessler Award. The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, City University of New York. (In honor of contributions to the field of Queer Studies), 2000.

• The First Annual Cara Award. UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center/ Cesar Chavez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana/Chicano Studies, 1999.

• The Fund for New American Plays Award, a project of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 1995 and 1991.

• Lifetime Achievement Award, Ellas in Acción, San Francisco, 1995.

• Lesbian Rights Award, Southern California Women for Understanding ("for Outstanding Contributions in Lesbian Literature and for Service to the Lesbian Community"), 1991.

• The National Endowment for the Arts Theater Playwrights' Fellowship, 1993.

• The Pen West Literary Award for Drama, 1993.

• The Critics' Circle Award for Best Original Script, 1992.

• The Will Glickman Playwriting Award, 1992.

• The Drama-logue Award for Playwriting, 1992.

• The Outlook Foundation, Literary Award, 1991.

• The California Arts Council Artists in Community Residency Award, 1991-2 /1993-5.

• The American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, 1986.

• The Creative Arts Public Service (CAPS) Grant for Poetry, New York State, 1983.

• The Mac Dowell Colony Fellowship for Poetry, New Hampshire, 1982.

[edit] See also

• Black feminism
• Chicana feminism
• List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Cast Out: Queer Lives in Theater (U. Michigan Press, edited by Robin Bernstein) includes Moraga's essay, "And Frida Looks Back: The Art of Latina/o Queer Heroics."