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Black Lesbian Literature In The United States
Black lesbian literature is a subgenre of lesbian literature and African American literature that focuses on the experiences of black women who identify as lesbians. The genre features poetry and fiction about black lesbian characters as well as non-fiction essays which address issues faced by black lesbians. Prominent figures within the genre include Ann Allen Shockley, Audre Lorde, Cheryl Clarke, and Barbara Smith. Black lesbian literature is characterized by its central focus on black women's experiences as they are shaped by interlocking systems of oppression like racism, sexism, homophobia, and class discrimination. Overview Black lesbian literature emerged out of the Black Feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Dissatisfied with the inability of both the feminist movement of the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement to address the specific forms of oppression experienced by black women, these writers produced critical essays and fictional works which gave voic ...
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Lesbian Literature
Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry, plays, fiction addressing lesbian characters, and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics. Fiction that falls into this category may be of any genre, such as historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance. Overview Lesbian literature includes works by lesbian authors, as well as lesbian-themed works by heterosexual authors. Even works by lesbian writers that do not deal with lesbian themes are still often considered lesbian literature. Works by heterosexual writers which treat lesbian themes only in passing, on the other hand, are not often regarded as lesbian literature. The fundamental work of lesbian literature is the poetry of Sappho of Lesbos. From various ancient writings, historians have gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho's charge for their instruction or cultural edification. Not much of Sappho's poetry remains, but that which doe ...
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Lesbian Separatism
Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men.Christine Skelton, Becky Francis, ''Feminism and the Schooling Scandal'', Taylor & Francis, 2009 ,p. 104 Because much of the theorizing is based in lesbian feminism, feminist separatism is often thought of as simply lesbian separatism, but at least 55% of the feminist movement and feminism in general utilize or have been influenced by feminist separatism. Author Marilyn Frye describes feminist separatism as "separation of various sorts or modes from men and from institutions, relationships, roles and activities that are male-defined, male-dominated, and operating for the benefit of males and the maintenance of male privilege – this separation being initiated or maintained, at will, ''by women''." Background Cultural critic Alice Echols describes the emergence of a lesbian separatist movement as a response to homophobic sentiments expressed by f ...
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April Sinclair
April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. It is the first of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the second of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. April is commonly associated with the season of autumn in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, and spring in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. History The Romans gave this month the Latin name ''Aprilis''"April" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 497. but the derivation of this name is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb ''aperire'', "to open", in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open", which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of άνοιξη (''ánixi'') (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred ...
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Jewelle Gomez
Jewelle Gomez (born September 11, 1948) is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture. Background Jewelle Gomez was born on September 11, 1948, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dolores Minor LeClaire, a nurse, and John Gomez, a bartender. Gomez was raised by her great-grandmother, Grace, who was born on Indian land in Iowa to an African-American mother and Ioway father. Grace returned to New England before she was 14, when her father died, and she was married to John E. Morandus, a Wampanoag and descendant of Massasoit, the sachem for whom ...
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The Gilda Stories
''The Gilda Stories'' is the 1991 debut novel of American author and activist Jewelle Gomez. Published in 1991, this speculative fiction vampire novel follows the experiences of a black lesbian heroine whose power and morality challenge assumptions about the vampire myth. Readers see this central character travel through time and lead multiple lives. In her first life, she is an unnamed runaway slave in Louisiana in 1850. After killing a bounty hunter in self-defense, she is rescued by Gilda, a vampire who runs a brothel named Woodard's. The women at the brothel educate her, become her family, and introduce her to vampirism and eternal life. Eventually, she becomes a vampire herself and adopts Gilda's name. The novel follows by providing historical Vignette (literature), vignettes of different cities and time periods, which highlight key moments in Gilda's life. She is in California in 1890, Missouri in 1921, Massachusetts in 1955, New York in 1981, New Hampshire in 2020, and the "L ...
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Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel ''The Color Purple''."National Book Awards – 1983"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 15, 2012. (With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry. She has faced criticism for alleged antisemitism and for her endorsement of the conspiracist



Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) was an American playwright and poet. As a , she addressed issues relating to and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for her -winning play, ''

Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
''Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo'' is a 1982 novel written by Ntozake Shange and first published by St. Martin's Press. The novel, which took eight years to complete, is a story of three Black sisters, whose names give the book its title, and their mother. The family is based in Charleston, South Carolina, and their trade is to spin, weave, and dye cloth; unsurprisingly, this tactile creativity informs the lives of the main characters as well as the style of the writing. ''Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo'' integrates the whole of an earlier work by Shange called simply ''Sassafrass,'' published in 1977 by Shameless Hussy Press. As is common in Shange's work, the narrative is peppered with interludes that come in the form of letters, recipes, dream stories and journal entries, which provide a more intimate approach to each woman's journey toward self-realization and fulfillment. The book deals with several major themes, including Gullah/Geechee culture, women in the arts, the Black Arts ...
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Gloria Naylor
Gloria Naylor (January 25, 1950 – September 28, 2016) was an American novelist, known for novels including '' The Women of Brewster Place'' (1982)'', Linden Hills'' (1985) and '' Mama Day'' (1988)''.'' Early life and education Naylor was born in New York on January 25, 1950, the oldest child of Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. The Naylors, who had been sharecroppers in Robinsonville, Mississippi, had migrated to Harlem to escape life in the segregated South and seek new opportunities in New York City. Her father became a transit worker; her mother, a telephone operator. Even though Naylor's mother had little education, she loved to read, and encouraged her daughter to read and keep a journal.Decker, Ed, and Jennifer York"Naylor, Gloria 1950–."''Contemporary Black Biography''. 2004. Before her teen years, Gloria began writing prodigiously, filling many notebooks with observations, poems, and short stories. In 1963, Naylor's family moved to Queens and her mother joined th ...
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The Women Of Brewster Place (novel)
''The Women of Brewster Place'' (1982) is the debut novel of American author Gloria Naylor. It won the National Book Award in category First Novel."National Book Awards – 1983"
. Retrieved February 28, 2012. (With acceptance speech by Naylor and essays by Rachel Helgeson and Felicia Pride from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
• First novels or first works of fiction were recognized from 1980 to 1985.
It was adapted as the 1989 miniseries '' The Women of Brewster Place< ...
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Arcadia Publishing
Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of neighborhood, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs the History Press, which publishes text-driven books on American history and folklore. History It was founded in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1993 by United Kingdom-based Tempus Publishing, but became independent after being acquired by its CEO in 2004. The corporate office is in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It has a catalog of more than 12,000 titles, and italong with its subsidiary, The History Presspublishes 900 new titles every year. Its formula for regional publishing is to use local writers or historians to write about their community using 180 to 240 black-and-white photographs with captions and introductory paragraphs in a 128 page book. The ''Images of America'' series is the company's largest product line. Other series include ''Images of Rail, Images of Spo ...
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Anita Cornwell
Anita Cornwell (born September 23, 1923) is an American lesbian feminist author. In 1983 she wrote the first collection of essays by an African-American lesbian, ''Black Lesbian in White America''. Biography Born in Greenwood, South Carolina, Cornwell moved to Pennsylvania at the age of 16, living first in Yeadon with her aunt, then in Philadelphia with her mother, who moved north when Cornwell was aged 18. Cornwell has one sibling, an older brother. She graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in journalism and the social sciences in 1948. She worked as a journalist for local newspapers and a clerical worker for government agencies. Cornwell's early writings, published in '' The Ladder'' and ''The Negro Digest'' in the 1950s, were among the first to identify the author as a black lesbian, and other publications where her work has appeared include ''Feminist Review'', ''Labyrinth'', ''National Leader'', and the ''Los Angeles Free Press''. Published on October 1, 1983, Co ...
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