Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012

Adrienne Rich's essay, "Claiming an Education" about being a student in a women's college, will be familiar to St. Kate's students and graduates from The Reflective Woman reader.

A noted feminist and poet, Adrienne Rich passed away March 28th at the age of 82. Rich graduated from Radcliffe College and supported protests against the Vietnam War and in favor of African-American civil rights. Her collection of poetry was selected for the U.S. National Book Award in 1974, which she accepted not in her own right but on behalf of all women. She has written both personal and political poetry and explored such issues as gender, class, and race. (source: The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women)
"A revolutionary poem will not tell you who or when to kill, what and when to burn, or even how to theorize. It reminds you... where and when and how you are living and might live, it is a wick of desire." ~ Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing this information with the campus. However, I feel that it omits a crucial part of rich's life. I think that it is important to mention that Adrienne Rich "explored such issues as gender, class, and race" AND sexuality, and that her own identity as a lesbian was critical to her work. One of her more famous essays was "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," which can be found at the library: http://clicnet.clic.edu/record=b1205352~S27

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