RIP Adrienne Rich
Mar. 28th, 2012 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynnegaPoet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died
In 1983, for my final high school semester, I ended up taking a controversial Women's Studies class (because the class I'd wanted to take had been canceled). It was my introduction to feminism, and it changed my life. Among the books on the syllabus were Adrienne Rich's The Dream of a Common Language and On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Both of them changed the way I thought about writing and the world--and "Twenty-one Love Poems" in particular amazed me (and still amazes me) with its beauty.
I saw Rich read her poetry twice. The first time was in the late '80s at Bread & Roses Bookstore. (I remember I'd come to the bookstore straight from a full day of defending women's health clinics against the harassment of Operation Rescue. The more things change...). The second time was in 1991 at Sisterhood Bookstore, when An Atlas of the Difficult World had just come out. Both bookstores are now gone, and now so is she. It's hard for me to fathom, when I've spent so many years reading and rereading her poetry and nonfiction--so many years being entranced and infuriated and engaged by her work.
In 1983, for my final high school semester, I ended up taking a controversial Women's Studies class (because the class I'd wanted to take had been canceled). It was my introduction to feminism, and it changed my life. Among the books on the syllabus were Adrienne Rich's The Dream of a Common Language and On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Both of them changed the way I thought about writing and the world--and "Twenty-one Love Poems" in particular amazed me (and still amazes me) with its beauty.
I saw Rich read her poetry twice. The first time was in the late '80s at Bread & Roses Bookstore. (I remember I'd come to the bookstore straight from a full day of defending women's health clinics against the harassment of Operation Rescue. The more things change...). The second time was in 1991 at Sisterhood Bookstore, when An Atlas of the Difficult World had just come out. Both bookstores are now gone, and now so is she. It's hard for me to fathom, when I've spent so many years reading and rereading her poetry and nonfiction--so many years being entranced and infuriated and engaged by her work.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-29 01:17 am (UTC)