This Pride month, as the world is rising up in solidarity with American cities protesting against racism, white supremacy, and police brutality, it is sobering to think about the many Black, queer lives that have been lost to these oppressive systems. As queer people, it is also a great time to remember that we celebrate Pride each year to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which were led by Black trans women in protest against police brutality. Although Black femmes have always been vocal leaders in our queer community, they are also most likely to face discrimination, harassment, and violence, and to have their voices silenced by others among us. Every Pride month, we should remember that Pride was not established to be a party, but a protest – and a protest against systemic racial oppression, at that. To help you do so, here are three books by Black queer women for you to read as Seattle’s queer community grieves and resists alongside our Black community this June.
& More Black by t’ai freedom ford
This is the second collection of poems published by New York poet t’ai freedom ford. “As a Black, queer, masculine presenting woman, my writing is informed by these identities and how someone like me negotiates the mainstream/dominant American culture that consistently seeks to marginalize my voice,” she shares on her website, and the many truths of what those identities mean in America are abundantly clear in the tightly packed, evocative, and dynamic lines of her poetry. This is the kind of poetry collection that will leave you wanting to race through it and savor each line at the same time, and each poem’s goal is clear: to deliver a specific aspect of what it means to (have an) experience. These are the perfect poems to be reading this Pride.
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Many of us are already familiar with Audre Lorde, the Black, lesbian poet and feminist writer who was one of the most influential feminist intellectual forces of the twentieth century. Sister Outsider, published in 2007, is a collection of her most “essential” speeches and essays, and includes a foreword by poet and scholar Cheryl Clarke. Among others, included in this collection are her famous pieces: “Uses of the erotic: the erotic as power;” “The Master’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s house;” and “The uses of anger: women responding to racism.” Lorde’s work is absolutely fundamental to contemporary understandings of intersectionality and to today’s queer and feminist activism. The essays and speeches contained in this collection serve as an excellent introduction for those who are just getting to know her work, but they are also well-suited for readers who have encountered Lorde before and would like to keep reading.
Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
In this book, poet, independent scholar, activist, and educator Alexis Pauline Gumbs – who identifies herself as a “queer Black troublemaker and Black feminist love evangelist” – offers readers a collection of poetic scenes that tell the stories of different Black women who are escaping from violence they have faced on the basis of their gender and race. Drawing from literary critic Hortense Spillers in both its title and subject matter, the collection has its foundations in the facts and political theory of racialized gender violence, but marries these with the personal through Gumbs’ beautiful representations of the intensely individual and evocative experiences of the women portrayed in each poem. This is a necessary read for anyone who wants to use the opportunity of this Pride month to reckon with the darker, more painful, and (now more than ever) urgent stories of Black womanhood that Gumbs has shared with us here.
~ Posted by Hannah P.
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