Denise Oliver-Vélez

Denise Oliver-Vélez (on the left) with Neeta Lind, at Netroots Nation in 2016.
Denise Oliver-Vélez (on the left) with Neeta Lind, at Netroots Nation in 2016.

Denise Oliver-Vélez (born 1947 in Brooklyn) is a professor, Contributing Editor, and former activist and community organizer.[1] As of 2014 she is a Contributing Editor for the blog Daily Kos, and an adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies at SUNY New Paltz.[1][2]

According to Denise herself, "I was in the Young Lords, and one of the points in the original program was ‘Revolutionary Machismo.’ Machismo is reactionary, so you can’t have revolutionary machismo. We women weren’t having it. So we made a very different kind of statement. ‘We want equality for women. Down with machismo and male chauvinism."[3]

The women’s caucus issued demands to the Central Committee of the Young Lords that called for an end to sexual discrimination and the full inclusion of women into the leadership of the Lords.[4] The Central Committee reacted by quickly promoting Denise and Gloria Fontanez to the Central Committee. They also adopted a new slogan, ¡Abajo con el machismo! (Down with Machismo!).[4] However, these changes did not happen immediately and women still faced sexism within the party regularly. Denise became aware of gendered assumptions made by the central committee about who could and could not perform certain tasks.[5] Even when women were assigned to posts in various ministries, including the Defense Ministry, they were disproportionately assigned traditional "women's work" like child care and secretarial tasks.[5]

By May 1970, the New York section of the Young Lords followed its then Central Committee (which included Denise, Officer of the Day and later Minister of Economic Development) and decided to break away from the national Young Lords' office in Chicago and renamed their new group the Young Lords Party. The separation was never a hostile one and had more to do with the rapid development of the group or "growing pains," a natural friendly competition between cities, and primarily by infiltration and repression by government groups that were trying to create conflict between the chapters to divide and destroy the newly formed movement.[6] Despite their considerable presence in the Young Lords Party, female members were consistently overlooked to occupy high-ranking leadership positions.[7] However, in 1970 Denise was appointed as Minister of Economic Development and became the highest ranking woman in the party.[8][6]

Some of the major contributions women made to the success of the Young Lords Party included publishing its Position Paper on Women, which was later included in The Young Lords: A Reader (2010), edited by Darrel Enck-Wanzer (see external links below for the full text of that book). Denise helped construct the document and theorized the intersection of race and class in the lives of women of color.[5]

In addition to her activism with the Young Lords, Denise was also an AIDS movement activist and a member of the Black Panther Party.[1] She published ethnographic research as part of HIV/AIDS intervention projects.[1]

She was a program director and co-founder of WPFW-FM in Washington, D.C., Pacifica's first minority-controlled radio station, and worked in public broadcasting and community media for many years.[1]

She was also the executive director of the Black Filmmaker Foundation.[1]

In 2010, New York University Press published The Young Lords: A Reader (see external links below for the full text of that book) which was edited by Darrel Enck-Wanzer and includes a foreword by Denise and another former Young Lords member, Iris Morales. It also includes the Young Lords Party Position Paper on Women, which Denise helped write.[9][10][5]

Denise is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.[11][12]

The Borinqueneers: Award Them the Gold; The Daily Kos; 5/27/2013; by Denise Oliver-Vélez

Full text of The Young Lords: A Reader (2010), edited by Darrel Enck-Wanzer

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Denise Oliver-Velez — She's Beautiful When She's Angry". Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  2. ↑ "She's Beautiful When She's Angry Makes its Theatrical Debut — She's Beautiful When She's Angry". Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com. 2014-11-28. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  3. ↑ Oliver-Velez, Denise. "Denise Oliver-Velez". She's Beautiful When She's Angry.
  4. 1 2 Ogbar, Jeffrey (2006). "Puerto Rico en Mi Corazón: The Young Lords, Black Power, and Puerto Rican Nationalism in the US" (PDF). Centro Journal: 148–169.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Fernández, Johanna. 2009. "Denise Oliver and the Young Lords Party: Stretching the Political Boundaries of Struggle." New York University Press. 271-293.
  6. 1 2 Churchill, Ward & Wall, Jim V. "The Cointelpro Papers" 1990
  7. ↑ Enck-Wanzer, Darrel (2010). The Young Lords: A Reader. New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0814722428.
  8. ↑ Klemesrud, Judy (November 11, 1970). "Young Women Find a Place in High Command of Young Lords". New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170506201050/https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/ylp-reader.pdf
  10. ↑ Enck-Wanzer, Darrel (2010). The Young Lords: A Reader. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780814722428.
  11. ↑ "The Women".
  12. ↑ "The Film — She's Beautiful When She's Angry". Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
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