when she wrote back to a comment i posted saying, "you know you want to, kt," i couldn't resist.
here is what she wrote:
I am asking that each of my readers point to one or more books, articles, poems, and/or key female figures of color who have discussed feminism from 1492 to the present. Please choose: one historical figure, one from 1960-70, and one from the present from the U.S. Please also choose at least one from outside of Euro-America.
1. historical figures
murasaki shikibu and sei shounagon. late heian (10-11c) writers and two of japan's best loved, known for "the tales of genji" and "pillow book." i include them as a pair because they compliment each other. they held a rivalry while they lived and to this day, many lay people passionate in literature will fall into "shikibu" and "shounagon" camps. shikibu was about narrative, nuance, and emotion. shounagon was about affect, rawness, and sex. shikibu accused shounagon of overstepping her bounds by writing in the "masculine" chinese texts. shounagon thought shikibu was a weak pansy. i include them as feminists not only because they have stood the test of time, but because they had strength and power in their own rights, during their own times. they were not coy, they were vocal. and they lived in their sexuality and were not afraid to use it. it is because of their two main texts that we know about the heian period as one full of polyamory and pansexuality. not just for men, but for shikibu and shounagon as well.
2. from 1960-70
ntozake shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem
audre lorde, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"
mitsuye yamada, "invisibility is not a natural disaster"
3. present from the U.S.
ana lara's novel, erzulie's skirt
kia corthron's play, "cage rhythm"
kristina wong, "wong flew over the cuckoo's nest"
i could keep going, but i think that this is good for now.
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