Posts Tagged #fridayreads

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Remembering Adrienne Rich: “Poetry was a feminist practice”

Ed. note: We regret publishing this piece without acknowledging or critiquing Rich’s history of transphobia and in particular her support for Janice G. Raymond, author of the discriminatory and hateful “The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male.” To be clear: By failing to acknowledge the late author’s views on womanhood, feminists risk writing trans people out of the movement. Please see this piece for a comment from our Executive Editor on this issue.

This past Wednesday marked the anniversary of the death of poet and feminist Adrienne Rich. As we close out Women’s History Month and begin National Poetry Month this Monday, it seems fitting to remember wise words from one of the most prominent voices in ...

Ed. note: We regret publishing this piece without acknowledging or critiquing Rich’s history of transphobia and in particular her support for Janice G. Raymond, author of the discriminatory and hateful “The Transsexual Empire: The Making ...
By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Searching For Zion

The first time I learned I was American was my first trip abroad to America’s colonial ancestor, England, where I circled a plexiglass-protected 15th century Benin mask at the British Museum. An older white Englishman engaged me in a conversation and when he called me American, it made my ears ring. For the remainder of my trip I observed, Londoners knew immediately by my walk, my posture, my voice (I didn’t talk loudly for fear that I’d get lumped the obnoxious Americans) that I was American. I can’t tell you how shocking that experience was. Even in America I never thought of myself as American. Immediately, I found myself searching for an exceptions, to footnote my American-ness. ...

The first time I learned I was American was my first trip abroad to America’s colonial ancestor, England, where I circled a plexiglass-protected 15th century Benin mask at the British Museum. An older white ...