Poetry

Activist, poet and essayist Minnie Bruce Pratt passed away on July 19th, 2023. She was 76.

Minnie was a radical southern femme, feminist poet, essayist, educator, and activist. She was a founding member of the Combahee River Collective, a black feminist organization that was one of the first to articulate a radical analysis of the intersections of race, class, and gender oppression. Pratt’s own work was deeply informed by her experiences as a white, working-class, lesbian woman. Her poems and essays explored themes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence.

Pratt was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1948. She grew up in a working-class family and attended segregated schools. After graduating from high school, Pratt attended Wellesley College, where she studied English and creative writing. After graduating from Wellesley, Pratt moved to New York City, where she began her career as a poet and essayist.

In 1974, Pratt co-founded the Combahee River Collective. The Collective’s statement of purpose, written by Pratt, is one of the most important documents in the history of black feminism. The statement articulates the Collective’s belief that “the major systems of oppression are interlocking, and that women of color experience oppression in ways that are both similar to and different from those of white women.”

In 1991, The New York Times named Crime Against Nature a Notable Book of the Year, and the American Library Association honored the volume with its Gay and Lesbian Book Award for Literature. The works focused on her experience as a lesbian raising sons. The book was reprinted and distributed in 2016 as the first title from Sapphic Classics, a co-edition between Sinister Wisdom Magazine and A Midsummer Night’s Press to reprint seminal works of lesbian poetry.

Pratt published six books of poetry, including “The Sound of One Fork Against the Other” (1981), “S/He” (1985), and “Ordinary Life” (1995). She also wrote several books of essays, including “Identity Lessons” (1998) and “Situating Autobiography” (2003). Pratt’s work has been widely anthologized and translated into several languages.

Pratt was a professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, for over 30 years. She was also a founding member of the Women’s Studies program at the University of Maryland. She spent the last years of her academic career as professor of women’s and gender studies as well as writing and rhetoric at Syracuse University. She retired in 2015.

Pratt was a tireless advocate for social justice and a powerful voice for the oppressed. Her work will continue to inspire readers for generations to come.

In addition to her writing, Pratt was also an active activist. She participated in protests against racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence. She also worked to raise awareness about the intersections of oppression. Pratt was a founding member of the Southern Organizing Committee for Human Needs and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She was also a member of the board of directors of the National Organization for Women and the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.

Pratt was a brilliant writer, thinker, and activist. She was a powerful voice for the oppressed and a tireless advocate for social justice. Her work will continue to inspire readers and activists for generations to come.

Here are some additional details about Pratt’s life and work:

Pratt was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award.
She was a member of the editorial boards of several journals, including “Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society” and “American Quarterly.”
Pratt’s work has been featured in several documentaries, including “The Combahee River Collective: A History in Documents” and “For the Record: The Life of Minnie Bruce Pratt.”
Pratt was awarded the National Women’s History Association’s Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 2014.

Pratt is survived by her sons Ben and Ransom Weaver. She was proceeded in death by her longtime partner and later spouse, activist and the author of ‘Stone Butch Blues,’ Leslie Feinberg in 2014.

Pratt’s death is a loss to the world of literature and activism. She was a brilliant writer and thinker who used her work to challenge injustice and oppression. Her legacy will continue to inspire others for years to come.

Pratt’s sons have suggested anyone wishing to make memorial donations in her name make them to the to the Friends of Dorothy House in Syracuse, which provides care and support to people living with HIV or AIDS.

May she forever rest in power.

April is National Poetry Month in the United States. What better way to celebrate it than with sapphic poetry?

The word ‘sapphic’ comes from the name, Sappho. Sappho was an ancient Greek poet who lived on the island of Lesbos in the 7th century BC. She is considered one of the greatest lyric poets of all time, and her work has been translated into many languages. Sappho’s poetry is characterized by its beauty, passion, and emotional intensity. She wrote about a wide range of subjects, including love, loss, nature, and music.

Sappho’s poetry is also known for its homoerotic themes. She wrote many poems about her love for other women, and her work has been celebrated by lesbian and bisexual women for centuries.

Sappho’s poetry was widely read and admired in ancient Greece, but it fell out of favor in the Middle Ages. Her work was rediscovered in the 16th century, and it has been the subject of much scholarly debate ever since. Sappho’s poetry is still relevant today, and it continues to inspire and move readers around the world.

A sample of Sappho’s poetry (translated, of course):

“Come, my friends, let us leave the meadow

And go up to the temple of Artemis.

There we will dance and sing

In honor of the goddess of the moon.

Let us crown our heads with garlands

And weave ivy around our arms.

Let us sing of love and beauty

And the joys of springtime.”

Sappho

Sappho’s poetry is a beautiful and moving testament to the power of love. Her work continues to inspire and resonate with readers centuries after she wrote it.

This translation of her poems and fragments was published in February of this year.

Some other popular Sapphic Poets are:

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012): An American poet, essayist, and feminist. Rich’s poetry often explores themes of love, loss, and the female experience. She is considered one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Her work spanned decades as evidenced by the collection of poems from 1950 to 2012.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992): A Caribbean-American poet, essayist, and activist. Lorde’s work often explores themes of race, gender, and sexuality. She is considered one of the most important writers of the Black feminist movement. The Collected Poems volume of Audre’s poetic work includes more than 300 poems. Her essays in her work, Sister Outsider are also must reads.

Sharon Olds (born 1942): An American poet known for her frank and often erotic poems about love, sex, and the body. Olds has won numerous awards for her work, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has several collections of her poetry. The ‘current’ most popular volume is the collection of long-flowing poems and songs, Balladz.

Tracy K. Smith (born 1972): An American poet and former Poet Laureate of the United States (2017-2019), who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2011 for her collection, Life on Mars (Out first in paperback. The eBook came several years later). Smith’s work often explores themes of race, identity, and memory.

Jericho Brown (born 1976): An American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2020 for her 2019 collection, The Tradition. Brown’s work often explores themes of love, loss, and masculinity.

Some of my personal sapphic favorites include Audre Lorde’s work and Ocean Vuong’s (A queer male poet). There are a few more whose work I enjoy, including another ‘Ocean.’

Ocean (Cocco): If you’re on social media, you’ve seen snippets of her poetry. She’s a contradiction, this woman, writing horror one moment and poetic testaments to life, love, and loss the next. I’m not sorry to say I pushed her to put her one published collection, Love you Like a Woman, together! Her work is the reason I started to read poetry again – and sapphic poetry in particular – after many years away. Get the book and/or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

L’Monique King: Her one, widely available collection, From Collards to Callaloo: Poems & Letters to Assata is not to be missed if you’ve ever been in a relationship with someone you love that has kept you from seeing others you love.

Arhm Choi Wild (Amazon paperback edition), now known as Noah Arhm Choi (they/them) (hardcover editions): The author of Cut to Bloom, winner of the 2019 Write Bloody Prize from Write Bloody Publishing. They received the 2022 Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize. Please note: We don’t take dead-naming lightly. We’re simply trying to portray the poet’s work accurately as far as how it is available.