Decolonize Black History Month

Day 19: Pat Parker

Poet Pat Parker was born on January 20, 1944 in Houston, Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Los Angeles City College and a master’s at San Francisco State College. Parker wrote about her personal experiences of being a woman, Black, a lesbian, a mother, working class, and all the intersections therein. Her poems could be humorous, sexy, livid, tender, and many other tones.

An Oakland, California transplant, Parker worked with organizations such as the Black Panther Party, the Black Women’s Revolutionary Council, the Women’s Press Collective, and the Oakland Feminist Women’s Health Center. She became the coordinator of the Health Center and helped it grow from one to six clinical sites. She used her words as activism, performing her narrative poetry in front of various audiences who needed to hear her messages. “When Pat Parker was advertised as a ‘kill the whites’ poet, she read dyke poetry, when facing a predominantly white middle-class women’s movement audience, she read her Black poetry” (Brimstone 6-7).

Parker published several books of poetry such as Child of Myself (1972), Movement in Black (1978) and Womanslaughter (1978). Parker’s work has been featured in compilations such as This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981) and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983).

 

Me, i am
totally opposed to
monogamous relationships
unless
i’m
in love 
from "A Small Contradiction"

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