Pat Parker
Encyclopedia
Pat Parker was an African-American lesbian
feminist poet.
poor in Third Ward, Houston, Texas
, a mostly African-American part of the city. Her mother (born Marie Louise Anderson) was a domestic worker
, and her father, Ernest Nathaniel Cooks retreated tires.
When she was four years old, her family moved to Sunnyside, Houston, Texas
.
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. She got married (to playwright Ed Bullins
) in 1962. Parker and Bullins separated after four years and she alluded to her ex-husband as physically violent, and said she was "scared to death of him".
She got married a second time, to Berkeley, California
writer Robert F. Parker, but decided that the "idea of marriage... wasn't working" for her.
Parker began to identify as a lesbian
in the late 1960s, and, in a 1975 interview with Anita Cornwell
, stated that "after my first relationship with a woman, I knew where I was going."
, Mary Watkins & Gwen Avery.. She founded the Black Women's Revolutionary Council in 1980, and 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.
Parker worked from 1978-1987 as a medical coordinator at the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center
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"
Cheryl Clarke
, another poet and peer, identifies her as a "lead voice and caller" in the world of lesbian poetry. 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." Clarke believes that Parker articulates, "a black lesbian-feminist perspective of love between women and the circumstances that prevent our intimacy and liberation."
Pat Parker and Audre Lorde
first met in 1969 and continued to exchange letters and visits until Parker's death in 1989.
In the poem, Parker notes that
The perpetrator was convicted of "womanslaughter", not murder; because
He served a one-year sentence in a work-release program. Parker brought this crime to the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women
in 1976 in Brussels
, vowing
at age 45. She was survived by her long-time partner and two daughters.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
feminist poet.
Early life
Parker grew up working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
poor in Third Ward, Houston, Texas
Third Ward, Houston, Texas
The Third Ward is one of the six historic wards of Houston, Texas, United States. It is located in the Southeast Houston management district.The Third Ward, located inside the 610 Loop is immediately southeast of Downtown Houston and to the east of the Texas Medical Center. The ward became the...
, a mostly African-American part of the city. Her mother (born Marie Louise Anderson) was a domestic worker
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
, and her father, Ernest Nathaniel Cooks retreated tires.
When she was four years old, her family moved to Sunnyside, Houston, Texas
Sunnyside, Houston, Texas
Sunnyside is a community in southern Houston, Texas, United States, south of Downtown Houston.Sunnyside is outside of the 610 Loop and inside Beltway 8 off State Highway 288 south of Downtown Houston and is predominantly African American...
.
She left home at seventeen, moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, earning an undergraduate degree there at Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
, and a graduate degree at San Francisco State College. She got married (to playwright Ed Bullins
Ed Bullins
Ed Bullins is an African American playwright. He was also the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers. In addition, he has won numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several Obies. He is one of the best known playwrights to come from the Black Arts Movement...
) in 1962. Parker and Bullins separated after four years and she alluded to her ex-husband as physically violent, and said she was "scared to death of him".
She got married a second time, to Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
writer Robert F. Parker, but decided that the "idea of marriage... wasn't working" for her.
Parker began to identify as a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
in the late 1960s, and, in a 1975 interview with Anita Cornwell
Anita Cornwell
Anita Cornwell is an American author.In 1983 she wrote the first collection of essays by an African American lesbian, Black Lesbian in White America.-Biography:...
, stated that "after my first relationship with a woman, I knew where I was going."
Work Life
Parker was involved in the Black Panther Movement, in 1979 she toured with the Varied Voices of Black Women, a group of poets and musicians which included Linda TilleryLinda Tillery
Linda Tillery is an American singer and percussionist from San Francisco.-History:Tillery first came to prominence as the lead singer in San Francisco group The Loading Zone in 1968-69...
, Mary Watkins & Gwen Avery.. She founded the Black Women's Revolutionary Council in 1980, and 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.
Parker worked from 1978-1987 as a medical coordinator at the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center
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.Judy Grahn
Judy Grahn
Judy Rae Grahn is an American poet. She has written many lesbian / feminist works.-Activities:Judy Grahn is a poet who writes about women's lives, including lesbian experience. She was a member of the Gay Women's Liberation Group, the first lesbian feminist collective on the west coast, founded...
, a fellow poet and a personal friend, identifies Pat Parker's poetry as a part of the "continuing Black tradition of radical poetry"
Cheryl Clarke
Cheryl Clarke
Cheryl L. Clarke is a writer, educator and lesbian Black feminist activist, born in Washington DC in 1947.-Writing:Raised in Washington DC, some of her earliest work reflected the troubled times of the 1960s and the rebellions that ripped through the District of Columbia following the...
, another poet and peer, identifies her as a "lead voice and caller" in the world of lesbian poetry. 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." Clarke believes that Parker articulates, "a black lesbian-feminist perspective of love between women and the circumstances that prevent our intimacy and liberation."
Pat Parker and Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:...
first met in 1969 and continued to exchange letters and visits until Parker's death in 1989.
Womanslaughter
Parker's elder sister was murdered by her husband, and the autobiographical poem, Womanslaughter (1978) is based on this event.In the poem, Parker notes that
- Her things were his
- including her life.
The perpetrator was convicted of "womanslaughter", not murder; because
- Men cannot kill their wives.
- They passion them to death.
He served a one-year sentence in a work-release program. Parker brought this crime to the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women
International Tribunal on Crimes against Women
The International Tribunal on Crimes against Women was a people's tribunal which took place on March 4-8, 1976 in Brussels. The event was created with the intention to "make public the full range of crimes , both violently brutal and subtly discriminatory , committed against women of all...
in 1976 in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, vowing
- I will come to my sisters
- not dutiful,
- I will come strong.
Death
Parker died of Breast CancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
at age 45. She was survived by her long-time partner and two daughters.
Tributes
- The The Pat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library in New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
is named in honor of Parker and fellow writer, Vito RussoVito RussoVito Russo was an American LGBT activist, film historian and author who is best remembered as the author of the book The Celluloid Closet ....
. - The Pat Parker Poetry Award is awarded each year for a free verseFree verseFree verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
, narrative poem or dramatic monologueDramatic monologueM. H. Abrams notes the following three features of the dramatic monologue as it applies to poetry:-Types of monologues:One of the most important influences on the development of the dramatic monologue is the Romantic poets...
by a black lesbian poet.
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 BooksFirebrand BooksFirebrand Books, was established in the early 1980s by Nancy K. Bereano---a lesbian/feminist activist in Ithaca, NY. It is a feminist and lesbian publishing house and among the many which grew out of the Women's Press Movement. Other presses of that period include Naiad Books, Persephone and...
- Movement in Black: The Collected Poetry of Pat Parker, 1961–1978 (includes work from Child of Myself and Pit Stop), foreword by Audre Lorde, introduction by Judy Grahn, Diana Press (Oakland, California), 1978, expanded edition, introduction by Cheryl Clarke, Firebrand Books (Ithaca, New York), 1999.
- Also contributor to
- Plexus
- Amazon Poetry
- I Never Told Anyone
- Home GirlsHome GirlsHome Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology is a collection of Black lesbian and Black feminist writing, edited by Barbara Smith. The anthology was first published in 1983 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, and was reissued by Rutgers University Press in 2000 ....
- This Bridge Called My BackThis Bridge Called My BackThis Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa. The anthology was first published in 1981 by Persephone Press, and the second edition was published in 1984 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press...
: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, Women of Color Press, 1981 - other anthologies, magazines, and newspapers.
Select Anthologies
- Where Would I Be Without You? The Poetry of Pat Parker and Judy Grahn 1976 Sound Recording Olivia RecordsOlivia RecordsOlivia Records was a collective founded in 1973 to record and market women's music. Olivia, named after the heroine of a pulp novel by Dorothy Bussy who fell in love with her headmistress at French boarding school, was the brainchild of ten lesbian-feminists living in Washington, DC who wanted to...
- Lesbian Concentrate Sound Recording 1977 Olivia Records
- Revolution: It's Not Neat or Pretty or Quick This Bridge Called My BackThis Bridge Called My BackThis Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa. The anthology was first published in 1981 by Persephone Press, and the second edition was published in 1984 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press...
Cherríe MoragaCherríe MoragaCherríe L. Moraga is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright.-Biography:Moraga was born in Whittier, California. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California and her Master's from San Francisco State University in 1980...
and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. Watertown, Massachusetts: Persephone Press, 1981.
Sources
- McEwen, Christian, editor, Naming the Waves: Contemporary Lesbian Poetry, Virago (New York City), 1988.
- Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Women of Color Press, 1981.
- Parker, Pat, Jonestown and Other Madness, Firebrand Books, 1985.
- Parker, Pat, Movement in Black: The Collected Poetry of Pat Parker, 1961–1978, foreword by Audre Lorde, introduction by Judy Grahn, Diana Press (Oakland, California), 1978, expanded edition, introduction by Cheryl Clarke, Firebrand Books (Ithaca, New York), 1999.
- Booklist, March 15, 1999, p. 1279.
- Callaloo, winter, 1986, pp. 259–62.
- Colby Library Quarterly (Waterville, ME), March, 1982, pp. 9–25.
- Conditions: Six, 1980, p. 217.
- Feminist Review, spring 1990, pp. 4–7.
- Library Journal, July, 1985, p. 77.
- Margins, Vol. 23, 1987, pp. 60–61.
- Women's Review of Books, April, 1986, pp. 17–19.
- Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1990: 833.
- Oktenberg, Adrian. In Women's Review of Books (Wellesley, Massachusetts), April 1986: 17-19.
- Ridinger, Robert B. Marks. "Pat Parker", in Gay & Lesbian Literature. Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press, 1994: 289-290.