This exhibition explores queer feminist artists’ responses to dominant notions about the body from the 1970’s to present day. Reflecting the ever-growing diversity of feminist art, After Our Bodies Meet provides a cross-cultural examination of how artists represent the body to challenge past and present forms of oppression and to envision a queer future.
After Our Bodies Meet: From Resistance to Potentiality, traces the efforts of contemporary queer artists within the legacy of early feminist art. Bridging these historic and contemporary endeavors not only honors the pioneers of gender-conscious art but also highlights the evolution of feminist thought within artistic representations of queer bodies, including some that question the gender binary on which feminism was first conceived.
FEATURING WORK BY:
Laura Aguilar Cathy Cade Heather Cassils Tee A. Corinne Chitra Ganesh Audre Lorde Allyson Mitchell Zanele Muholi Catherine Opie Chris E. Vargas Sophia Wallace
Archival materials from the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
Our collection preserves a second printing of American poet and activist Pat Parker’s first poetry book, Child of Myself, published in 1974 by the Women’s Press Collective.The illustrations for this printing were done by Brenda Crider, Wendy Cadden, Jerri Robertson, Karen Garrison, and “Helle.” Over the course of her life, Parker published five collections of poetry and was a champion in the fight for women’s and LGBT liberation.
Parker’s activism was extensive. Parker was the founder of the Black Women’s Revolutionary Council in 1980; an early supporter of groups like the Black Panther Party; and the executive director of the Oakland Feminist Women’s Health Center from 1978 to 1987—a revolutionary organization, offering abortion healthcare to women in California, which inspired the formation of the still active, Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center (CFWHC). She also aided in the formation of the Women’s Press Collective, the publisher of her first two poetry books. The Collective was established by photographer, printer, and publisher,Wendy Cadden, and her partnerJudy Grahn, an Air Force officer turned poet and activist after being discharged for being openly gay. Producing books, poems, and graphics, the press strove to promote work by lesbians disenfranchised by race or class.
InChild of Myself, Parker challenges the socially accepted power dynamics of heterosexual relationships through critiques on women’s prescribed roles as housekeeper and caretaker. When reading Parker’s stream-of-consciousness poetics, we have to step back and appreciate the bravery of these Black, LGBT, women feminists, who endured in the face of multiple systems of oppression. Parker and friends’ fight for women’s liberation was even acknowledged by Black Panther Party Leader, Huey P. Newton, in a 1970 interview:
…we say that we recognize the women’s right to be free. We have not said much about the homosexual at all, but we must relate to the homosexual movement because it is a real thing. And I know through reading, and through my life experience and observations that homosexuals are not given freedom and liberty by anyone in the society. They might be the most oppressed people in the society.
Child of Myself was originally published in 1972 by Shameless Hussy Press, founded byAlta Gerrey in Oakland in 1969—the first feminist press in the United States! The release of this first poetry book was just the beginning of Parker’s incredible career as a champion for LGBT rights, coming out as lesbian after the release of her second collection, Pit Stop, published by Women’s Press Collective in 1973, and again in 1975. Parker’s third poetry book, Womanslaughter, published in 1978 by American feminist publishing house, the Diana Press, revolves around the issue of femicide and the trauma of domestic violence. Parker often spoke publicly about these issues, kicking off day three of the first National Conference of Third World Lesbians and Gays, on October 15th, 1979, in Washington, D.C., with a speech about her sister’s tragic death at the hands of her husband.
Due to the Diana Press’s closure in 1979, Parker’s fourth collection, Movement in Black, published by the press in 1978, went out of print until 1983, when the Crossing Press (now a part of Random House’sCrown Publishing Group) issued a facsimile edition of the collection. By 1987 the book was once again unavailable, until, shortly after Parker’s death in 1989, Firebrand Books published its first edition of the collection—this time, including a foreword by friend, poet, and fellow activist, Audre Lorde and an introduction by Judy Grahn. Ten years later, in 1999, Firebrand released An Expanded Edition of Movement In Black, which includes a new section of previously-unpublished work, an introduction by Cheryl Clarke, and “Celebrations, Remembrances, Tributes” by ten Black writers including Lorde,Angela Y. Davis,Pamela Sneed, and Barbara Smith (founder of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press).
Parker’s fifth and final poetry collection, Jonestown & Other Madness, was originally published by Firebrand Books in 1985, then re-published in 1989, just before Parker’s death from breast cancer. If you click here, you can hear Parker read the title poem from the book. Parker’s legacy will not soon be forgotten. In June 2019, Parker was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn. In 1991, thePat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library, was founded to encourage and facilitate the reading and research of LGBT literature.
If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence and looking for help, don’t hesitate to reach out to the free, 24/7,hotline through text, chat, or call at 800-799-7233.
The angers between women will not kill us if we can articulate them with precision, if we listen to the content of what is said with at least as much intensity as we defend ourselves against the manner of saying. When we turn from anger we turn from insight, saying we will accept only the designs already known, deadly and safely familiar. I have tried to learn my anger’s usefulness to me, as well as its limitations.
For women raised to fear, too often anger threatens annihilation. In the male construct of brute force, we were taught that our lives depended upon the good will of patriarchal power. The anger of others was to be avoided at all costs because there was nothing to be learned from it but pain, a judgment that we had been bad girls, come up lacking, not done what we were supposed to do. And if we accept our powerlessness, then of course any anger can destroy us.
But the strength of women lies in recognizing differences between us as creative, and in standing to those distortions which we inherited without blame, but which are now ours to alter. The angers of women can transform difference through insight into power. For anger between peers births change, not destruction, and the discomfort and sense of loss it often causes is not fatal, but a sign of growth.
Here’s three queer women to learn about to help you celebrate the day:
English author Mary Shelley pioneered the sci-fi genre when she wrote Frankenstein at just 19.
American writer and activist Audre Lorde fought for women who, like her, were excluded from mainstream feminism, whether because of class, race, sexuality, or disability.
Maryam Khatoon Molkara campaigned for decades for the recognition of trans people in Iranian law, eventually securing a fatwa (Islamic ruling) from the leader of Iran himself.
In her own words, Audre Lorde was a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Lorde began writing poetry at age 12 and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine at age 15. She helped found Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the world’s first publisher run by women of color, in 1980. Her poetry was published regularly throughout her life and she served as the State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992. Lorde explored issues of class, race, age, sex, and – after a series of cancer diagnoses — health, as being fundamental to the female experience. She died of liver cancer in 1992.
We find ourselves having to repeat and relearn the same old lessons that our mothers did, because we do not pass on what we have learned, or because we are unable to listen. For instance, how many times has all this been said before? For another, who would have believed that once again our daughters are allowing their bodies to be hampered and put in purgatory by girdles and high heels and hobble skirts?
‘holistic politics: our difference is our strength.’ audre lorde, 1984.
“I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities”
by Audre Lorde
This pamphlet, part of a series which “presents issues, strategies, and resources which focus upon the political concerns of women of color” (see back cover above) was released by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. The press, started by Barbara Smith, Lorde, and other Black feminists in 1980, had the goal of publishing works by women of color, voices that were often silenced elsewhere.
In this purple pamphlet, emblazoned with an anti-homophobia pin on the cover, we read Lorde’s thoughts on unifying with Black women of all sexualities. She pushes back against the idea that Black lesbians are fighting for the same political rights as Black non-lesbians. She asserts that lesbians have families too, and denounces the homophobia she sees. It is addressed to those who might see differences in sexuality as a barrier, and highlights a goal for straight and queer Black women to work together towards justice. It then offers resources for organizing, with the hope that this pamphlet will be used to educate and incite activism.
Audre Lorde, a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” was an extraordinary activist and writer who used her voice to call for social and racial justice. A former librarian, Lorde’s legacy is vast and we are happy to have a small part of it here at Special Collections and Archives at The University of Iowa.
–Rachel M-H, Special Collections Olson Graduate Assistant
“The body needs to create too. Beware feeling you’re not good enough to deserve it. Beware feeling you’re too good to need it. Beware all the hatred you’ve stored up inside you, and the locks tender places.”
—Audre Lorde, from a letter to Pat Parker featured in Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde & Pat Parker,
Every woman has their mottos and mantras that get them through tough times and everyday life. It’s not easy being bold and fierce all the time, but somehow we all make it. As Women’s History Month comes to a close, check out some inspirational quotes by queer women who have gone above and beyond to reach their dreams.
Speak earth and bless me with what is richest make sky flow honey out of my hips rigis mountains spread over a valley carved out by the mouth of rain.
And I knew when I entered her I was high wind in her forests hollow fingers whispering sound honey flowed from the split cup impaled on a lance of tongues on the tips of her breasts on her navel and my breath howling into her entrances through lungs of pain.
Greedy as herring-gulls or a child I swing out over the earth over and over again. - Audre Lorde
Coming together it is easier to work after our bodies meet paper and pen neither care nor profit whether we write or not but as your body moves under my hands charged and waiting we cut the leash you create me against your thighs hilly with images moving through our word countries my body writes into your flesh the poem you make of me.
Touching you I catch midnight as moon fires set in my throat I love you flesh into blossom I made you and take you made into me.
“And I would be the moon spoken over your beckoning flesh, breaking against reservations, beaching thought, my hands at your high tide, over and under inside you, and the passing of hungers, attended…forgotten.”
Excerpted from Audre Lorde’s paper “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” originally delivered at the Lesbian and Literature panel of the Modern Language Association’s December 28, 1977 meeting. First published in Sinister Wisdom 6andThe Cancer Journals.
Recently, I led a discussion on intersectional issues of abuse including systemic issues of sexismandrape culture, and ended with encouraging my support group leadership, participants, and loved ones to confront, disrupt, and eradicate these issues with a goal of helping establish empathic environments free of shame, stigma, and fear in our homes, schools, and workplaces. It was met with cathartic feedback; one survivor’s response hit home. I’m sharing bits and bytes from the presentation here.
It’s accurate to state that the majority of our country is aware of sexism and ignorant to rape culture and its direct linkage to sexism: that everyday rape culture is protected and promulgated in every aspect of our lives through sexist verbiageandpolicy; the promotion of sexual coercion;lack of bodily autonomy; and disregard for feminine-presenting or gender-nonconforming people. Rape culture can be subtle or overt; often, abusers consciously create situations with subtleties so that when called out, they have a litany of excuses—“gray areas,” they may say—ready to escape culpability.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives.”
All people have the right to engage with their social, academic, and professional spaces free from harmful behavior. Education on how to give and get consent in daily interactions is critically important to creating sustainable culture change. Coercive behavior at home, school, and work can include intimidation, subtle or overt threats, blackmail, dishonesty, and gaslighting, often romanticized. Eventually due to unyielding pressure, the victim may acquiesce, sustaining the false notion of a mutual agreement.
A person’s ability to consent is influenced by the interplay of power, identity, and privilege. In using coercion, an abuser in a position of power—perceived or actual—leverages that power to achieve their desired outcome which can include subjugation, humiliation, and sexual control. An abuser with power and privilege is responsible for not putting a person in a position where they are expected to say yes. Rape culture normalizes the belief that a yes achieved through coercion is sufficient consent, allowing for collective disregard of a victim’s personhood and value.
Example 1:
Abuser creates false sense of safety for victim; abuser intimidates victim with falsehoods that victim will later debunk; abuser silences victim with threats; abuser subtly and overtly abuses victim with others’ knowledge; victim calls out abuser for abuse and debunked falsehoods; abuser gaslights victim with discriminatory verbiage; victim struggles with debilitating anxiety and depression.
When victim discloses details to their support system, half of said support system responds with: “He denied it”and“Don’t think about it.”
Example 2:
On June 10, 2019, the Washington Postreported, “President Trump’s pitter-patter of exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasting and outright falsehoods has continued at a remarkable pace. As of June 7, his 869th day in office, the president has made 10,796 false or misleading claims.”
Often when victims share their abuse—whether in pieces and on their time or full force and immediately—they are labeled and further shamed and stigmatized. When victims are advised to trivialize, divert, and ignore their abuse, they are further intimidated and silenced. Society is infinitely creative in dismissing victims’ abuse, particularly the experiences of victims whose identities are on the margins of mainstream culture. As such, a victim—survivor—who has experienced abuse, and whose identity is on the margins of mainstream culture, is more likely to face additional barriers to disclosing, reporting, seeking lifesaving care, and justice.
So how do we move forward? First, institutions and the justice system must stop protecting and perpetuating victim blaming and gender inequity, including hegemonic masculinityandpatriarchy. All of this is part of rape culture. Victims must be empowered with the support that they need to survive and thrive; as such, they should be viewed as survivors. We must remember that credibility is a basic survival tool,and that survivors speaking up is courageous. Speaking up often comes at a price, whether at the expense of a survivor’s reputation, education, career, and/or health. We must work to confront, disrupt, and eradicate that expense.
Parents, leadership in schools and workplaces, and policy makers must teach and communicate prevention, engagement, and outreach regarding gender equity, violence prevention, and trauma. This is critically important to developing concrete strategies grounded in theoretical framework.
Finally, it is utmost important that survivors are supported. Responding to a survivor’s disclosure with compassion, validation, and support is critically important for a survivor healing from abuse and trauma. Supporting survivors confronts pervasive attitudes that cast doubts on survivors who come forward; as such, support is integral to preventing future incidents of abuse. Validation and support sends a message to society that these types of abusive behavior are harmful and must have consequences.
Survivor healing and abuser accountability are both utmost important to survivors finding closure and emerging with growth and resilience. Often, a survivor cannot move onward without it.
“During World War Two, we bought sealed plastic packets of white, uncoloured margarine, with a tiny, intense pellet of yellow colouring perched like a topa just inside the clear skin of the bag. We would leave the margarine out for a while to soften, and then we would pinch the little pellet to break it inside the bag, releasing the rich yellowness into the soft pale mass of margarine. Then taking it carefully between our fingers, we would knead it gently back and forth, over and over, until the colour had spread throughout the whole pound bag of margarine, thoroughly colouring it.
I find the erotic such a kernel within myself. When released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and colours my life with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all my experience.”
I have a lot of new pieces up in my store and on Feminist Apparel. Check them out! Great big thanks, as always, to Design Cuts for providing some of the textures and fonts used in these designs.
Typographical layout, fonts courtesy of Design Cuts. Unisexandwomen’s sizes all available in black, white, or gray heather.
11×17 poster, digitized calligraphy + fonts provided by Design Cuts. Available for sale!
Typographical layout, fonts courtesy of Design Cuts. Unisexandwomen’s sizes all available in black, white, or gray heather.
Typographical layout, fonts courtesy of Design Cuts. Unisexandwomen’s sizes all available in black, white, or gray heather.
Typographical layout, fonts courtesy of Design Cuts. Unisexandwomen’s sizes all available in black, white, or gray heather.
Typographical layout, fonts courtesy of Design Cuts. Unisexandwomen’s sizes all available in white or gray.
Mix of hand-drawn calligraphy and typographical layout, fonts courtesy of Design Cuts. Unisex tanks & t-shirts as well as sweatshirts, plus women’s tanks & t-shirts as well as sweatshirts all available in black and white.
Hand-lettered and illustrated poster, available in 18×24or9×12.
Custom calligraphed & illustrated poster, part of my “Game Over” series, from Assassin’s Creed II. Available as a 9×12 poster.
Happy Black History Month! Our work in the Asian American movement would not be possible without the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, the Third World Liberation Front, the fight for ethnic studies, Black Lives Matter and more.
To honor this legacy, 18MR has teamed up with Asha Grant, founder of The Free Black Women’s Library - Los Angeles, to share some of our favorite Black History Month reads.
Asha has 2 special recommendations to share! Learn more about The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA RiotsandSister OutsiderinOUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH READING LIST FOR ASIAN AMERICANS.
Queer history was probably not included in your grade school curriculum—but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist! Part of being a good ally (that’s you, parents!) is learning about the history, hardships, and celebrations that the LGBTQ community has experienced, and remembering all the contributions made by queer folks throughout history.
This week, we are highlighting important LGBTQ artists and writers whose work has made an important, lasting impact on our culture and society today. For some, their sexuality played an important role in informing their work. For others, it was kept private or even erased by history altogether in order for their work to be accepted by the mainstream. In both cases, it is important to remember and celebrate the long history of LGBTQ creatives and the impact they made.
Michelangelo, 1475 - 1564
It may come as a surprise to you that the artist behind Rome’s famous Sistine Chapel was thought to have been gay. Michelangelo was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and poet of the Renaissance. In addition to the Sistine Chapel, he was also the artist behind the famous David sculpture and many other great artistic and architectural works. He was considered one of the greatest artists of the time while he was alive and remains one of the most influential people in the development of Western art today. Although the language of sexuality was very different in Michelangelo’s time and he was not “out” by any modern sense of the word, his poetry contains blatant references to the romantic relationships between himself and other men in his life. The homoerotic nature of much of Michelangelo’s work caused enough discomfort that when his nephew posthumously published the collection of writing, he had the gender pronouns in the work changed from male to female to erase the overt homosexual desire. It was not until over 100 years later when art historian John Addington Symonds went back to the original works to translate them into English that the change was discovered and the original pronouns were restored.
Surprised? It is not uncommon for the queer sexual orientations of historical figures to be dismissed or left out of history books. Other well-known historical figures that are thought to have been gay include Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello, and Shakespeare.
Romaine Brooks, 1874 - 1970
Romaine Brooks was a queer 20th century American painter whose portraits depicting female androgyny contained a critique of gender well ahead of her time. Her inherited wealth meant that she was freed from many of the obligations that women and female artists faced at the time. Her work was largely done in grayscale, with very minimal, muted coloring. Her subjects were almost exclusively women, and her work included portraits of her acquaintances as well as the women she had romantic relationships with. In addition to the androgynous or masculine attire of her female subjects, she is notable for treating the women in her art as the subject, rather than the object, of the piece. Brooks’ own style mirrored that of the women she painted—her self portrait (pictured in part above), is one of her most well known works, and depicts the artist in a collared shirt and riding jacket with a black high hat and cropped hairstyle. Such attire was popular in the early 20th century as a signal of queerness to other queer women. As a female artist—and a queer female artists at that—Brooks’ work was largely overlooked until the rise of feminist scholarship and queer art history brought her work back into the spotlight. Today, gender and sexuality are on the cutting edge of the art scene, and Romaine Brooks’ legacy stands as an early exploration of gender fluidity, identity, and sexual orientation.
James Baldwin, 1924 - 1987
James Baldwin was an American novelist and essayist whose work is noted for its social critique and exploration of race, sexuality, and class in the Western world. Growing up black and gay in America, Baldwin experienced frequent discrimination, which greatly impacted his literary work. One of his early novels, Geovanni’s Room, caused great controversy for its unapologetic depiction of same-sex relationships. His subsequent novels, including Another Country and Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone, openly portray queer and interracial relationships, both of which were incredibly controversial in that time. Baldwin was also greatly inspired by and active in the Civil Rights Movement in America during the 1960s; he travelled to the South where he interviewed people who experienced the movement, and wrote several essays about what he saw. He became involved in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), where he travelled across the American South lecturing on his views on racial equality and analyzing the ideologies of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Baldwin was open about his sexual orientation, which was still rare at the time, and his legacy lives on as both an inspiring gay figure and as an impactful literary voice of the Civil Rights Movement.
Audre Lorde, 1934 - 1992
Audre Lorde was an American writer, a daughter of immigrants, and a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Her writing is most well known for its social justice framework and discussion of feminism, racial injustice, and queer identity. From powerful, emotionally expressive poetry to social critique and queer feminist theory, her work spanned multiple genres, always with the underlying themes of identity, intersectionality, and oppression. Her writing on identity and intersectionality established Lorde as a pillar of the feminist movement, notably penning the well-known essay “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House,” a critique of the racism that was pervasive in much of the feminist movement. Lorde was also a social activist; she was active in the civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements during her lifetime. She co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, dedicated to helping queer women of color get published in a time where the industry was dominated by white men, and was an associate of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, a non profit publishing organization. Lorde’s fierce and powerful work and legacy continues to impact the literary and feminist communities today.
Keith Haring, 1958-1990
Keith Haring was a gay American artist, and a prominent figure in the New York East Village Art scene in the 1970s and ‘80s. He is well-known for his pop art graffiti and the political and social commentary in his work, especially relating to sexuality and the AIDS crisis. His work utilized bold lines and vivid colors and his early work was done graffiti-style on unused advertising boards in the New York subway stations. His work made overt references to his sexuality as well as social issues such as the anti-apartheid movement, the AIDS crisis, and the crack cocaine epidemic. He also created the Keith Haring Foundation to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations, specifically to educate disadvantaged youth and individuals about HIV and AIDS. Haring himself died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 31, but his legacy lives on in his iconic work and advocacy. His mural Crack is Wack (1986) can still be seen along FDR Drive in Manhattan today.
It is important to remember that LGBTQ people have always existed and contriubuted to our culture and society. Throughout history, queer artists often faced rejection of their work based not on its merit, but because of their sexual orientation. Therefore, it is even more important now to look to the past to celebrate the lives and creative works of the queer community and credit them for how their work continues to influence and inspire people today.
Want to learn more but don’t know where to start? We recommend checking out:
“Of what had I ever been afraid? To question or to speak as I believed could have meant pain, or death. But we all hurt in so many different ways, all the time, and pain will either change or end. Death, on the other hand, is the final silence.”
“What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?”
– Audre Lorde, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action
