Pat Parker
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Pat Parker (January 20, 1944 - June 19, 1989) was a lesbian Black feminist poet.[1]
[edit] Early Life
Parker and her family grew up working class poor in Third Ward, Houston, Texas[2], a mostly African-American part of the city. Her mother was a domestic worker , and her father retreaded tires.[3]
When she was four her family moved to Sunnyside, Houston, Texas.[4]
She left home at seventeen, moved to Los Angeles, California, earning an undergraduate degree there at Los Angeles City College, and a graduate degree at San Francisco State College.[3] She got married (to playwright Ed Bullins) in 1962.[5][3] Parker and Bullens separated after four years and she alluded to her ex-husband as physically violent, and said she was "scared to death of him".[4]
She got married a second time, to Berkeley, California writer Robert F. Parker[3][6], but decided that the "idea of marriage... wasn't working" for her.[4]
Parker began to identify as a lesbian in the late 1960's, and, in a 1975 interview with Anita Cornwell, stated that "after my first relationship with a woman, I knew where I was going."[4]
[edit] Work Life
Parker was involved in the Black Panther Movement, founded the Black Women's Revolutionary Council in 1980[5][7], and, in 1979, toured with the Varied Voices of Black Women, a group of poets and musicians which included Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins & Gwen Avery.[8][9] She also contributed to the formation of the Women's Press Collective, as well as being involved in wide-ranging activism in gay and lesbian organizing.[5]
Parker worked from 1978-1987 as a medical coordinator at the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center[5]
[edit] Writing
Parker gave her first public poetry reading in 1963 in Oakland. In 1968 she began to read her poetry to women's groups at Women's bookstores, coffeehouses and feminist events.[10]
Judy Grahn, a fellow poet and a personal friend, identifies Pat Parker's poetry as a part of the "continuing Black tradition of radical poetry"[11]
Cheryl Clarke, another poet and peer, identifies her as a "lead voice and caller" in the world of lesbian poetry.[12] designed to confront both black and women's communities with, as Clarke notes, "the precariousness of being non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual in a racist, misogynist, homophobic, imperial culture."[13] Clarke believes that Parker articulates, "a black lesbian-feminist perspective of love between women and the circumstances that prevent our intimacy and liberation."[13]
Pat Parker and Audre Lorde first met in 1969 and continued to exchange letters and visits until Parker's death in 1989.[3]
[edit] Womanslaughter
Parker's elder sister was murdered by her husband, and the autobiographical poem, Womanslaughter (1978) is based on this event.[5]
In the poem[14], Parker notes that
- Her things were his
- including her life.
The perpetrator was convicted of "womanslaughter", not murder[5]; because
- Men cannot kill their wives.
- They passion them to death.
He served a one-year sentence in a work-release program.[5] Parker brought this crime to the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in 1976 in Brussels,[15] vowing
- I will come to my sisters
- not dutiful,
- I will come strong.
[edit] Death
Parker died of Breast Cancer.[5] She was survived by her long-time partner and two daughters.[5]
[edit] Tributes
- The The Pat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library in New York is named in honor of Parker and fellow writer, Vito Russo.
- The Pat Parker Poetry Award is awarded each year for a free verse, narrative poem or dramatic monologue by a black lesbian poet.
[edit] Books
- Child of Myself (1972) The Women's Press Collective
- Pit Stop (1973) The Women's Press Collective
- Womanslaughter (1978) Diana Press
- Movement in Black (1978) Crossing Press
- Jonestown & Other Madness (1989) Firebrand Books
[edit] Select Anthologies
- Where Would I Be Without You? The Poetry of Pat Parker and Judy Grahn 1976 Sound Recording Olivia Records
- Lesbian Concentrate Sound Recording 1977 Olivia Records
- Revolution: It's Not Neat or Pretty or Quick This Bridge Called My Back Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1981.
[edit] References
- ^ Bereano, Nancy K. Publisher's note, Movement in Black, 1989, Crossing Press, ISBN:0895941139
- ^ Grahn, Judy. Preface, Movement in Black, 1989, Crossing Press, ISBN:0895941139
- ^ a b c d e De Veaux, Alexis. Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde, W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, ISBN:0393019543, pp166-167
- ^ a b c d Cornwell, Anita. Pat Parker -- Black Lesbian Poet Radical Pioneer author of Movement in Black, Hera Magazine, 1975, quoted in A Muse
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Alexander, Ilene 1998 [1]
- ^ Simon, John Oliver. Aldebaran Review in Berkeley Daze, Big Bridge Press
- ^ Deep Oakland
- ^ National Black Herstory Task Force
- ^ Deep Oakland
- ^ VG/Voices from the Gaps Project: Ilene Alexander
- ^ Grahn, Judy. 1978, quoted in Feminist Review, No. 34, Perverse Politics: Lesbian Issues (Spring, 1990)
- ^ Clarke, Cheryl. Movement in Black, 1989, Crossing Press, ISBN:0895941139
- ^ a b Clarke, Cheryl. Review of Movement in Black Conditions (magazine) Six, Summer 1980, pp217-225
- ^ Parker, Pat. Womanslaughter, Diana Press, 1978
- ^ Russell, Diana E. H. Report on the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring, 1977, pp1-6
