Pat Parker | |
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| Born | Patricia Cooks (1944-01-20)January 20, 1944 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | June 17, 1989(1989-06-17) (aged 45) Oakland, California, U.S. |
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| Partner | Marty Dunham |
| Children | 2 |
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Pat Parker (bornPatricia Cooks; January 20, 1944 – June 17, 1989)[2] was an African American poet and activist. Both her poetry and her activism drew from her experiences as a Blacklesbian feminist.[3][4] Her poetry spoke about her tough childhood growing up inpoverty, dealing withsexual assault, and themurder of a sister.[5] At eighteen, Parker was in an abusive relationship and had amiscarriage after being pushed down a flight of stairs.[5] After two divorces, shecame out as a lesbian, "embracing her sexuality" and said she was liberated and "knew no limits when it came to expressing the innermost parts of herself".[5]
Parker participated in political activism and had early involvement with theBlack Panther Party and Black Women's Revolutionary Council, and formed theWomen's Press Collective.[6] She participated in many forms of activism especially regarding gay and lesbian communities, domestic violence,reproductive rights, civil rights and anti-racism.[7] She released five poetry collections:Child of Myself (1972),Pit Stop (1975),Movement in Black (1978),Womanslaughter (1978), andJonestown and Other Madness (1985).
Pat was born on January 20, 1944, inHouston, Texas, to Marie Louise (née Anderson) and Ernest Nathaniel Cooks.[4] Marie Louise worked as adomestic worker and Ernest retreaded tires.[8] She was the youngest of four daughters. The family lived first in theThird Ward and then moved to theSunnyside neighborhood when Parker was four years old.[9]
She left home at seventeen and moved to Los Angeles to attend college. She attendedLos Angeles City College and also was enrolled inSan Francisco State College from 1966 to 1967 but did not graduate. (In anNEA application for 1988, Parker writes that she studiedCreative Writing at San Francisco State University but did not attain a degree.) She marriedplaywrightEd Bullins in 1962.[8][10] Both Bullins and Parker became involved in theBlack Panther Party in the 1960s.[11]
Parker and Bullins separated after four years. She later said that her ex-husband was physically violent and that she was "scared to death".[12] She married Robert F. Parker, writer and publisher,[8][13] but decided that the "idea of marriage... wasn't working" for her.[12] She began to identify as alesbian in the late 1960s, and, in a 1975 interview withAnita Cornwell stated: "after my first relationship with a woman, I knew where I was going."[12]
Parker worked from 1978 to 1988 as the medical coordinator and executive director of theOakland Feminist Women's Health Center.[14] In 1979 she toured with the "Varied Voices of Black Women", a group of poets and musicians that includedLinda Tillery,Mary Watkins, and Gwen Avery.[15][16] She founded the Black Women's Revolutionary Council in 1980,[10][16] 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.[10]
Pat Parker was asked by her father to take "the freedom train of education," Parker moved to Oakland California, in the early 1970s to pursue writing and potential opportunities for activist work.[17] Parker also participated in political activism and had early involvement with theBlack Panther Party, Black Women's Revolutionary Council and formed theWomen's Press Collective.[6] Parker participated in many forms of activism especially regarding gay and lesbian communities,domestic violence, and rights ofpeople of color.[7]
Parker gave her first public poetry reading in 1963 in Oakland. In 1968, she began to read her poetry to women's groups atwomen's bookstores, coffeehouses and feminist events.[18]
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".[19]
Cheryl Clarke, another poet and peer, identifies her as a "lead voice and caller" in the world of lesbian poetry.[20] 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".[21] Clarke believes that Parker articulates "a black lesbian-feminist perspective of love between women and the circumstances that prevent our intimacy and liberation".[21]
Parker andAudre Lorde first met in 1969 and continued to exchange letters and visits until Parker's death in 1989. Their collaboration inspired many, including lesbian-feminist blues/R&B singerNedra Johnson, whose song "Where Will You Be?" has become something of a feminist anthem in the USA.[8]Audre Lorde and Pat Parker shared common themes within poetry they wrote as well. Audre Lorde's piece "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action"[22] talks extensively about action through language, a similar concept seen in Pat Parker's "Where will you be".[23]
Parker's elder sister, Shirley Jones, was shot and killed by her husband. Parker wrote the autobiographical poem,Womanslaughter (1978), based on this event.[10]
In the poem,[24] Parker notes that
The perpetrator was convicted of "womanslaughter", not murder,[10] because
He served a one-year sentence in a work-release program.[10] Parker brought this crime to theInternational Tribunal on Crimes against Women in 1976 inBrussels,[25] vowing
In 2014, the small independent press Ra'av (Hebrew for Hunger) published a wide selection of Parker's work in Israel, translated into Hebrew by Yael "belly" Levi-Hazan, Yael (yali) Dekel, and Hani Kavdiel.[citation needed]
Parker died on June 19, 1989, ofbreast cancer at the age 45 in Oakland, California.[10] The national lesbian-feminist community mourned her loss, and several things have been named after her, such as Pat Parker Place, a community center in Chicago. She was survived by her long-time partner, Marty Dunham, and her daughters Cassidy Brown and Anastasia Jean.[26]
The Pat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library at TheLesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center inNew York City is named in honor of Parker and fellow writer,Vito Russo.
The Pat Parker Poetry Award is awarded each year for afree versenarrative poem ordramatic monologue by a black lesbian poet.
In 2004, composerAwilda Villarini used Parker's text for her song "Dialogue."[27]
In June 2019, Parker was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on theNational LGBTQ Wall of Honor within theStonewall National Monument (SNM) inNew York City'sStonewall Inn.[28][29] The SNM is the firstU.S. national monument dedicated toLGBTQ rights andhistory,[30] and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the50th anniversary of theStonewall riots.[31]
"Pat Parker, Where Will You Be". YouTube.
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