A Latina Feminist to Remember: Puerto Rican Poet Julia de Burgos

On July 5, 1953, in the early morning hours, two New York City police officers spotted a figure lying unconscious in the street near the corner of 5th Avenue and 106th St. in East Harlem. As they approached, they saw it was a towering woman, 5 feet 10 inches, with bronze-colored skin. They rushed her [...]

Not Your Mama’s Memoir

Popular mothering memoirs seem to fall into one of two categories. Either they subscribe to the humorous approach, in which the author focuses on the bodily functions, hormones and general hilarity of pregnancy and child-rearing, or they’re the heartfelt, saccharine, love-fest memoir (and yes, Jenny McCarthy has written books in both flavors). Refreshingly, Bring Down [...]

Crotchless-Pants-and-a-Machine-Gun Feminism

What is “crotchless-pants-and-a-machine-gun” feminism? The term is inaugurated in Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young‘s new book, A Megaphone, which is a collection of three works by the avant-garde poetic duo. A Megaphone highlights the work Spahr and Young have done recently in the avant-garde poetry world–which the authors describe as “weirdly aggressive towards anything that even [...]

Don’t Ms.: Earth Day, Slut-Walk Dallas, Chicana/Latina Feminisms and More!

Everywhere: April 22 is Earth Day! I remember being a wee girl and planting trees with my schoolmates to celebrate the day. Check out some other ideas on how to celebrate the day here. Support Women and the Green Economy (WAGE) by becoming an Earth Day Network Activist. WAGE works to engage women business, NGO [...]

Julia Alvarez Illuminates Our Competing Truths

The feeling of un-belonging or “between-ness”–in gender, country, language, family–is one that unites many of us who experience a certain ambivalence in our identities as citizens, daughters, artists and women. For Julia Alvarez, the award-winning poet and author of bestselling novels such as How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents and In the Time of [...]

Five Fascinating Latinas for Women’s History Month

The Latinas we see on TV and in film too often are relegated to being maids or sexy, voluptuous women. But we are so much more. This Women’s History Month, I want to celebrate just a few of the powerful and inspirational Latinas who defied stereotypes, greatly contributed to history and personally inspired me. Frida [...]

Gendering Poetry for the Next Generation

Valentine’s. Whether you spend the corporate holiday canoodling with your significant other or ranting on Twitter about how you don’t need a holiday to tell you how to love, odds are pretty good that you’ll run across some poetry along the way. Now, poetry can range anywhere from Emily Dickinson to a Hallmark greeting to [...]

A (Very Incomplete) Feminist Poetry Syllabus for 2011

Recently, I have been hearkening back to my literary year–1988. That was in college when I had a feminist poetry class, and also the last time I read such material in depth. Not that it was a chore back then. I was intrigued by the irreverent, political, intellectually fierce and nakedly honest material, which grabbed me [...]

Boobies, Birthers and WikiSexism: Editors’ Picks 8/29-9/3

Just in time for the long weekend, Ms. brings you the must-reads you might have missed this week–from a Pocahontas-poetry mash-up, to gender inequality on Wikipedia, to live reporting from Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally. Happy reading, and enjoy the holiday! The Wall Street Journal talked to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president and chairman of [...]

Joy Harjo’s Trail of Tears

As the most well-known Native (Mvskoke-Creek) woman poet of her generation, and the 2009 Nammy winner for best female artist, Joy Harjo has been offering us her words and music for three decades now. In her late 50s, she is still at the height of her creative powers, still one of only a handful of Native musicians [...]

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