Prose Index

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Aboriginal people, 100, 103–4, 120, 140–41

Aboriginal women, 100, 103–4, 140–41

academic feminism, 39–43

action, 42, 77

anger translated into, 57

guilt as a way of avoiding, 61

silence transformed into, 9–14

actions, responsibility for, 85

African-Americans, 99–100

African-American women writers, 106. See also Black Women writers

African diaspora, 99–100

Afro-German women of, 88–89

Black women writers of, 105, 106–7, 129–30

hyphenated people of, 90

African National Congress (ANC), 91–92, 136

Africanness, 85, 98, 103. See also Blackness

Africans, Black, 103

Afro-Americans, 89, 98. See also Black women

Afro-Asians, 89

Afro-Dutch, 98

Afro-Europeans, 89

Afro-French, 99

Afro-Germans, 89, 98–99

ageism, 175

Alexis, 111

Alice, 140. See also Thembi (Alice)

america

economics of disease in, 131

oppression in, 98

racial violence in, 152

surviving, 11–12

American Indians. See Native Americans

Anderson, Marian, 69

Andrea, 132–33

anger, 46, 71, 147

Black women and, 53–65

change and, 62

energy and, 57–58

facing constructively, 60

fear and, 61–62

hatred and, 59

information and, 57–58

racism and, 53–65

translated into action, 57

uses of, 53–65

women and, 53–65

women of Color and, 62

Anguilla, British West Indies, 127–28

anthroposophy, 158

antiracism, 78

apartheid, 149, 152, 158

Arlesheim, Switzerland. See Lukas Klinik

art, Black women and, 155–56

Art Against Apartheid, 78

the ascetic, 32

Asian-Americans, 103

Auckland, New Zealand, 141

Audre Lorde Women’s Poetry Center, Hunter College, 108–10

Ayers Rock, 141

Barbados, 15

Beauvoir, Simone de, 43, 149

being, 40

Bembe, 138

Beth (daughter), 100–101, 110, 126

Bishop, Maurice, 129

Black Africans, 103

Black america, white america’s mistakes and, 49

Black american soldiers, 106–7

Black american women, 106

Black community

cancer in, 159

poetry and, 89

blackface, 45–51

Black family, 75

Black feminism, 39–43, 45–51, 73–80, 97, 105–6

Black feminists, 39–43, 73–80, 97, 105–6

Black Gay men, 78

Black Germans, 89

Black lesbian feminists, 73–80

Black lesbians, 40, 73–80, 105–6

Black liberation, 49–50, 51, 98

Black male consciousness, 49

Black men, 45–51, 75, 106

Black women and, 45–51, 76, 78–79

liberation of, 49

married to white women, 48–49

need to dominate and, 49

responsibility of, 48

Black Nation, 78

Blackness, 11, 74, 85, 99–100, 103, 163

Black people, invisibility of, 162

Black poets, 77

Black pride, 47

Black Revolution, 99

Black South Africans, 103

Black South African women, 141, 163–64

“The Black Woman Writer and the Diaspora” conference, 105

Black women, 39, 41, 42, 63, 73–80, 141. See also Black feminists; Black lesbians; Black women writers; women of Color; specific groups

abuse of, 50–51

anger and, 53–65

art and, 155–56

Black men and, 45–51, 76, 78–79

cancer and, 150–51

compassion and, 47

economic inequities and, 45–51

energy and, 97

in Germany, 89

magazines for, 155

mutual support among, 156

organizing across sexualities, 73–80

sacrifices of, 47–48

self-determination and, 82

spirituality and, 155–56

stress and, 158

survival and, 82, 85, 156

underrepresentation in publishing and culture, 42

visibility and, 11–12

white women and, 54–65, 95–96, 97

Black Women for Wages for Housework, 56

Black Women’s Book Fair, 132–33

Black women’s writing, teaching of, 13

Black women writers, 105, 106–7, 129–30

of African diaspora, 106–7, 129–30

responsibilities of, 106–7

Blanche (Blanchie), 111, 126, 130–31

blindness, 50, 63

Bonnieux, France, 133–39

Botha, P. W., 163

British Virgin Islands, 167–71

Brown, Wilmette, 56

Butler, Octavia, 105

C., Dr., 105, 111

Canaan, Andrea, 105

cancer, 9, 107–8, 111–12, 139, 141–42

acknowledging, 161–62

anonymous face of, 164

battles with, 149, 157–58, 163–65

biopsies, 86–87, 91, 95, 142, 145–46, 147

in Black community, 159

Black women and, 150–51

diagnosis of, 122–23, 144–46, 150

diagnosis of liver, 157

economics of, 131

empowerment of living with, 152–53

homeopathic view of, 90, 148–49, 151

living with, 81–165

mastectomy and, 81, 87, 105, 130, 144, 145, 146, 154

metastasization of, 81–82, 86–87, 92–93, 108, 144, 146–47, 148

as political, 131, 153

rage and, 147

surviving, 144, 155

cancer survivors, invisibility of, 160, 162

capital, labor and, 50

capitalism, 45–46, 50, 174

the Caribbean, 167–71

Caribbean women, 128–30, 141

Carmen (cousin), 129

Carnegie Hall, 130

Central America, U.S. intervention in, 164

Central Park, New York City, lynchings in, 152, 158

Chambers, Deotha, 87

change, anger and, 62

Charlotte, 111

Chicanas, 103

choices, 160

Christian, Robin, 79

City College, 77

Seek program, 76

Clare, 111, 126

class, 46

Clem, 148

Cliff, Michelle, 123

Cole, Johnnetta, 110, 129

collective responsibility, 12

collective work, 12

color, as color, 99

commitment, survival and, 92

communication, 60

community, liberation and, 41

compassion, Black women and, 47

Conference on the Status of Women in Nairobi, 79

connection, 41

Connor, Bull, 163

consciousness

non-european, 4

power of death over, 154

control, 153

cooking, 15–20, 23–27

Cowan, Patricia, 46, 50

creative energy, 32, 37

“creative relationships,” 51

creativity, difference and, 40–41

CR groups, 60

Dagmar, 93, 94

D.A.R., 69

defensiveness, 53–54, 60

definition

as empowerment, 42

need for, 13–14

desires. See the erotic

despair, 159

determination, 150. See also self-determination

deviance, 175

Diana, 132–33

diaspora. See African diaspora

difference, 11, 14, 59, 65, 84, 96, 97

acknowledging, 176–77

copying, 174

creativity and, 40–41, 99

dehumanization of, 174

destroying, 174

false hierarchies of, 176

fear of, 75–76

feminism and, 39–43

feminist theory and, 39–40

ignoring, 174

judged as negative or positive, 174

language and, 98, 102–3

neutralizing, 174

oppression and, 42, 176

organizing around, 79

role in women’s lives, 39

as strength, 41–42

survival and, 173–77

Dilnawaz, 115–16

Dinah, 140

discomfort, 160–61

distortions, 11, 34, 36, 53, 59, 62, 174–76

dreams, 5–7

Duke Ellington, 83, 130

Dunbar-Nelson, Alice, 78

dying, 91, 94, 106, 112, 118, 150–51, 153, 157, 164

Dykes Against Racism Everywhere, 78

eastern medicine, 158

elitism, 175

Ellen, 139

Emily, 136

empowerment, 31

definition as, 42

mutual, 63

energy, 76, 152

anger and, 57–58

Black women and, 97

determination and, 150

woman energy, 76

eros, 32

the erotic, 39

celebration of, 31

fear of, 33–35

functioning of, 33

knowledge and, 30, 32, 33

as power, 29–37

suppression of, 29

uses of, 29–37

work and, 31–32

ethnic prejudices, 125–26. See also racism

Etta (Zamani Soweto Sisters member), 137

Etta (aunt), 69

eurhythmy, 115, 121

evil, 159–60

excellence, 30, 31

exclusion, 53

existentialism, 39

family, 75

fear, 10, 11, 62, 85, 91, 131

anger and, 61–62

of the erotic, 33–35

of feeling(s), 30–31

respect for, 13–14

of visibility, 11, 13

working and speaking in spite of, 13–14

fearlessness, luxury of, 14

feeling(s), 3, 4–7, 33

depth of feeling, 30

fear of, 30–31

sharing of, 35–36

vs. thinking, 5–7

“femininity,” 49

feminism, 39–43, 73–80, 96

academic, 39–43

Black feminism, 39–43, 45–51, 73–80, 97, 105–6

difference and, 39–43

racial difference and, 39–43

racist, 42

white, 42–43, 45–51

feminist theory, 40

difference and, 39–40

white american, 42

Fireburn Mary, 163–64

First International Feminist Bookfair, 95–96

Flower, Yvonne, 79

Fourth of July, 67–71

Frances, 83, 102, 108, 110, 116, 118–21, 122, 123, 125–27, 141, 158

freedom, 5, 63–64, 98. See also Black liberation

German women of Color, 89. See also Afro-Germans

good, definition of, 31–32

Great-American-Double-Think, 47

Grenada, 15, 105, 106–7, 129

Grimké, Angelina Weld, 78, 105–6

growth, 13, 62

guilt, 53–54, 60, 61, 62, 104, 160

moving beyond, 65

hair, as political, 167–71

Hampton, Mabel, 110

Hanna, 138

Hansberry, Lorraine, 78

Harlem Renaissance, 78, 106

Harvard University, 100–101

hatred. See also women, hatred of, anger and, 59

healing, 126, 154

health, responsibility for one’s own, 149, 151

Helen (Zamani Soweto Sisters member), 137

Helen (sister), 110, 123–24, 126, 129

heterosexism, 74, 78–79, 149, 175

heterosexual Black community, 75

heterosexuality, 40

Hodge, Merle, 129

holistic approach, 151, 158

home office, 154–55

homeopathic medicine, 90, 148–49, 151

homophobia, 39, 43, 63, 74, 76, 78–80

homosexuality, 73–80. See also Black lesbians; lesbians

Honeywell, Mr., 83

Horne, Lena, 77

Howard Beach, 158

Hughes, Langston, 78

Hull, Gloria, 106

hunger, 84

Hunter College, 106, 108–10

“Difference and Survival” address at, 173–77

Hurricane Hugo, 167

ideas, 3, 6–7

identity, 99

ignorance, 60

immortality, illusion of, 164

impotence, 60

indigenous people, 107. See also Aboriginal people; Native Americans; specific groups

indigenous women, 100

inequities, economic, 45–46

information, anger and, 57–58

injustice, 71

interdependency, 40, 41

intermarriage, 48–49

International Conference of Black Feminists, 97

International Hospital for Torture Victims, 136

intimidation, 63

Iran-Contra scandal, 164

Iscador, 91

isolation, 159

Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion Star Ledger, 83

Johannesburg, South Africa, 138–39

John Jay College, Black Studies Department, 76

Jonathan (son), 101, 126

Jordan, June, 97

Joseph, Gloria, 88, 92, 93–94, 110, 123, 126, 127, 129, 134, 137, 139

joy, 33

judgment, fear of, 13

Katerina, 140

King, 83–84

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 83–84, 130

Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 137, 139, 152

knowledge, 10–11, 32, 41, 43

the erotic and, 30, 32, 33

power and, 30

Koori Day, 141

Kujichagulia, 12

Kuzwayo, Ellen, 105, 132, 133

Kwanza, 12

labor, capital and, 50

language(s), 4, 100

commitment to, 12

of difference, 102–3

difference and, 98

learning, 131

need for, 13–14

power of, 12

silence transformed into, 9–14

Latinas, 103

lesbian consciousness, 40

lesbian feminism, 73–80

lesbian feminists, Black, 73–80

lesbians, 39, 41, 51, 63, 105–6

Black, 40, 73–80, 105–6

Lesbians of Color, 82. See also Black lesbians

liberation, 41, 49–50, 51, 98

liberation consciousness, 98

lifeforce, 32

Lillah (aunt), 69

limitations, 153

Lincoln Memorial, 69

Linda, 136–37

living, meaning of, 157

Lorde, Audre

The Cancer Journals, 92, 112

children, 149. See also Beth (daughter); Jonathan (son)

father of, 64–71

keynote address on “The Language of Difference,” 102–3

mother of, 15–28, 64–71, 127

Our Dead Behind Us, 112

talk on “Sisterhood and Survival,” 105–6

Lorenz, Dr., 122–23, 125

loss, sadness of, 164

love, 32, 33

Lovedu, 135

Lukas Klinik, 107, 111, 112–27, 162

lynchings, 61, 152, 156, 158

Malcolm X, 84

male privilege, oppressive nature of, 49

Maori women, 100, 140. See also Aboriginal women

marae, 140

Ma Rainey, 78

March on Washington, 77

Margareta, 124

margarine, 34

Maria, Sister, 117–18

Mariah, 137

Marie, Sister, 121

marijuana, 170

Maris, Hyllus, 141, 142

marital slavery, 42

Mary, 138

master–slave relationships, 51

master’s tools, 39–43

Mawu, 143, 158

Maybank, Liz, 85

Mays, Raymina, 79

McAnally, Mary, 50

Medgar Evers College, 73

medicine

eastern medicine, 158

homeopathic medicine, 90, 148–49, 151

mediocrity, 30

meditation

as form of self-control, 111–12

on physical self in battle, 157–58

Melbourne, Australia, 141

Men of All Colors Together, 78

menstruation, 20, 21, 22–23, 26, 27–28

Merle, 141

Moraga, Cherrie, 139

mortality, 10–11, 89, 93, 94, 112, 126, 142, 150–53, 157, 160, 164. See also dying

confronting, 109

fear of, 13

Mujaji, 135

muteness, 13. See also silence

Myrna, 139

the mythical norm, 175–76

narcissism, 48

National Cancer Institute, 164

National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, 78

National Women’s Studies Association, 56

Native Americans, 103, 107

Native American women, 107

Nazism, 90

negativity, 152

New Caledonia, 106

New York University Institute for the Humanities conference, 39–43

nightmares, 148

Nineteenth Amendment, 61

noncommunication, 75

non-european consciousness, 4

Nudie, 141, 142

nurturance, 40

objectification, moving beyond, 65

obscenity, 36

older women, 41

openness, vs. naiveté, 157

opposition, 58–59

oppression, 49, 60, 63, 74, 99

academic feminism and, 39–43

in america, 98

capitalist, 46

difference and, 42, 176

tools of, 43

organizing, 73–80

across sexualities, 73–80

around difference, 79

pain, 13, 50, 61–62, 63, 94, 107–8, 118, 160–61

Pakahas (whites), 141

patients, rights of, 151

patriarchy, 36, 37, 40, 41–42, 61

Paul, Alice, 61

people of Color, 99, 106. See also women of Color

hatred of, 58

international community of, 85

perception, African way of, 148

Petal, 135–36

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 67

Phyllis (sister), 64–71

physical resistance, 161

poetry

freedom and, 5

as illumination, 3

importance of, 89

necessity of, 3–7

power of, 152

as revelatory distillation of experience, 4

as skeleton architecture of our lives, 5

police brutality, 152, 156

the political, 32–33

political action, 42

polygamy, 51

poor women, 39, 41, 42, 56, 63

the pornographic, 30

pornography, 30, 32, 36

Powell, Betty, 79

power, 40, 51, 63, 74, 151. See also empowerment

academic feminism and, 39–43

choice to use, 152

the erotic as, 29–37

knowledge and, 30

male models of, 29

patriarchal, 61

of poetry, 152

relativity of, 149

women and, 30

powerlessness, 35, 61–62

pregnancy, 21

privilege, 49, 53, 63

prostitution, 42

racial blindness, 63

racial difference, 11. See also difference

feminism and, 39–43

racial distortions, 53

racial intermarriage, 48–49

racial violence, 61, 152, 156, 158. See also police brutality

racism, 39, 40, 43, 69–71, 79–80, 92, 119–20, 175

american, 68–69

anger and, 53–65

battling, 149

definition of, 53

depersonalization of, 11

at First International Feminist Bookfair, 95–96

institutionalized, 77

racist attitudes, 53–54

racist feminism, 42

surviving, 144

white women and, 55, 57

women and, 53–65

rage, 46, 147. See also anger

Raja, 98

Rangitunoa, 140

rape, 20–21, 22, 46, 50, 103

Rastafarianism, 170

Reaganomics, 156

responsibility, collective, 12, 106–7

Returning Woman Newsletter, 109

Rich, Adrienne, 42–43, 123

Rios, Yolanda (Yoli), 77

Rita, 137–38

Rogers, Gwendolyn, 79

Rosenberg, Dr., 91, 93, 94, 95

Rudolf Steiner schools, 112

Rukeyser, Muriel, 81

Ruth, 135

Samoan women, 140–41

Sapphire Sapphos, 82, 84

satisfaction, sense of, 30, 31

scrutiny, fear of, 13

the sea, 127–28

Seboulisa, 143, 158

segregation, 68, 69–71

self, sense of, 30

self-abnegation, 32, 35

self-assertion, 49

self-connection, 33

self-destructiveness, 152

self-determination, 12, 82

self-hypnosis, 161

self-love, 48, 161

self-monitoring, 158

self-revelation, 11

self-value, 48

sensation, 30

the sensual, 32–33

sex, 20–21, 22, 31

sexism, 39, 45–51

the sexual, 32

sexualities, Black women organizing across, 73–80

Shange, Ntozake, 46

silence, 40, 152–53, 160

breaking silence about bodies and health, 151

immobilization by, 14

transformation into language and action, 9–14

tyrannies of, 10–11

SISA. See Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa

sisterhood, 12, 36, 46, 47, 56–57, 58, 60, 61, 64, 73–80, 103, 105–6

Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, 110, 133, 152

Sister Outsider collective, 93–94

Smith, Barbara, 79, 139

Smith, Bessie, 78

socialism, 50

Sofia, 137

Sojourner Sisters, 88, 129

souse, 17–19, 20, 23–24

South Africa, 78, 91–92, 132, 152, 158

South Africans, 103

South African women, 93–94, 133–39

South Pacific, 141

Soweto, South Africa, 91, 106, 135, 152

spirituality, 32–33, 155–56

Staples, Robert, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51

St. Croix, Virgin Islands, 128–32

Steiner, Rudolf, 112, 116

stereotyping, 53, 79–80

Stetson, Erlene, 106

stoicism, 151

strength, difference as, 41–42

stress, Black women and, 158

Sula, 136

the sun, 127–28

survival, 13, 63, 64, 82, 85, 95, 106, 131, 160

in america, 11–12

Black women and, 156

commitment and, 92

mothers’ voices of, 128

not an academic skill, 41–42

surviving cancer, 144, 155

surviving racism, 144

Terms of Endearment, 161–62

Terrell, Mary Church, 61

Thembi (Alice), 135

thinking, vs. feeling, 5–7

Third World People’s Center, 92

Third World women, 39, 40

Tiamat, 158

“The Ties That Bind” conference, 129–30

Tougaloo Choir, 83, 130

Tougaloo College, 77, 83

transition, 164

truth, 12–13, 84

Ujima, 12

Ulluru, 141

Umoja, 12

uncertainty, learning to live with, 163

the unintentional, 31

unity, 12

victim blaming, 47

victimization, 47

Victoria, Australia, celebration of founding of, 102–3

violence, 61, 152, 156, 158. See also police brutality

Virgin Gorda, 167–68

Virgin Islands, 167–71

visibility, 11–12, 84

of Black women, 11

fear of, 11, 13

visualization, of battles with cancer, 163–64

Washington, D.C., 82

Fourth of July in, 67–71

Wassa, 138–39

West Indies, 15

white america, mistakes of, 49

white feminism, 42–43, 45–51

white women

Black women and, 54–65, 95–96, 97

married to black men, 48–49

racism and, 55, 57

women of Color and, 95–96

Williams, Dessima, 129

Wilson, Angela, 64

Wolf, Christa, 94–95

Wolpert, Betty, 134

woman-hating, 49, 50, 51

womanness, 74

women. See also specific groups

in the academy, 56

accused of being too “visceral,” 50

anger and, 53–65

defined as acceptable, 41

difference between, 40–41

empowered, 31

hatred of, 58

lifeforce of, 32

mutuality between, 40

oppression of, 35

places of power within, 3–4

poetry as necessity for, 4

power and, 30

racism and, 59

strength of, 62

violence against, 46, 50–51, 78

woman energy, 76

woman-hating, 49, 50, 51

womanness, 74

women-identified, 40

women of Color, 42, 56, 60, 103, 140. See also specific groups

anger and, 59–60, 62

in Germany, 89

lesbians, 63

reclaiming by, 106

white women and, 95–96

women’s culture, 39

women’s movement, 11, 54

Women’s Studies programs, 54

work

collective, 12

the erotic and, 31–32

World War II, 34

Wurundjeri women, 104

Yolanda, 110

Yoli, 141

Zamani Soweto Sisters, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 139