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A Final Project for Professor Margaret Galvan’s Fall 2014 First Year Writing Seminar at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study by Anthony Cao and Cole Kantgias
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Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941) Forster, E. M. (1879-1970) Strachey, Giles Lytton (1880-1932) Bell, Clive (1881-1964) Keynes, John Maynard (1883-1946) Fry, Roger (1866-1934) Grant, Duncan (1885-1978) MacCarthy, Desmond (1877-1952) Bell, Vanessa Stephen (1879-1961) Woolf, Leonard (1880-1969) MacCarthy, Mary (1882-1953) Stephen, Thoby (1880-1906) Stephen, Adrian (1883-1948) Carrington, Dora (1893-1932) Sydney-Turney, Saxon (1880-1962)
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“Sunday Dearest, You can’t think how I loved your letter. But I feel I have gone too far this time to come back again. I am certain now that I am going mad again. It is just as it was the first time, I am always hearing voices, and I shan’t get over it now. All I want to say is that Leonard has been so astonishingly good, every day, always; I can’t imagine that anyone could have done more for me than he has. We have been perfectly happy until these last few weeks, when this horror began. Will you assure him of this? I feel he has so much to do that he will go on, better without me, and you will help him. I can hardly think clearly anymore. If I could I would tell you what you and the children have meant to me. I think you know. I have fought against it, but I can’t any longer. Virginia.”
A close friend of the poet Anne Sexton until Sexton's suicide in 1975,
Kumin has said that they frequently shared their works in progress and had an enormous influence on each other.
That’s where Anne Sexton and I met. She said of me that I was the frump of frumps; I was in awe of her. She wore high heels and pancake makeup and had flowers in her hair. You could not possibly find two more different women.
Anne Sexton helped me to open up in ways that I might not have achieved on my own. I helped to formalize some of her concepts. She would read these raw drafts – I even pulled some out of the wastebasket in her study – and I’d say, “This could be a pretty good poem if you could just hammer it into form.” That was pretty much my approach to the private, personal, anguished material which is now called confessional. If you could formalize it, you could make it work. Her best poems were those poems – the poems in All My Pretty Ones, her second book. She helped me get rid of the Latinate terminology in my poems. She was encouraging about my country poems – she titled Up Country. At that time you could put a second telephone line in your house if you were living in the same suburb or a contiguous one for 4 dollars and 80 cents a month, which we did. Then one of us would initiate the call and we would leave the phones connected all day and if we had something to share we would whistle into the phone. It really trains your ear to be hearing poems in process that way. We worked intimately together, and yet I think our voices are very different.
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Shall I say how it is in your clothes? A month after your death I wear your blue jacket. The dog at the center of my life recognizes you’ve come to visit, he’s ecstatic. In the left pocket, a hole. In the right, a parking ticket delivered up last August on Bay State Road. In my heart, a scatter like milkweed, a flinging from the pods of the soul. My skin presses your old outline. It is hot and dry inside. I think of the last day of your life, old friend, how I would unwind it, paste it together in a different collage, back from the death car idling in the garage, back up the stairs, your praying hands unlaced, reassembling the bits of bread and tuna fish into a ceremony of sandwich, running the home movie backward to a space we could be easy in, a kitchen place with vodka and ice, our words like living meat. Dear friend, you have excited crowds with your example. They swell like wine bags, straining at your seams. I will be years gathering up our words, fishing out letters, snapshots, stains, leaning my ribs against this durable cloth to put on the dumb blue blazer of your death. !-“How It Is” Maxine Kumin
Fundamentally, I started writing to save my life. Yes, my own life first. I see the same impulse in my students-the dark, the queer, the mixed-blood, the violated-turning to the written page with a relentless passion, a drive to avenge their own silence, invisibility, and erasure as living, innately expressive human beings.!-Cherrie Moraga
“I am a woman with a foot in both worlds; and I refuse the split. I feel the necessity for dialogue. Sometimes I feel it urgently.”
“A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives — our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings — all fuse to create a politic born of necessity.”
“A woman who writes has power, and a woman with power is feared.”
"We have begun to come out of the shadows; we have begun to break with routines and oppressive customs and to discard taboos; we have commenced to carry with pride the task of thawing hearts and changing consciousness
Women, let's not let the danger of the journey and the vastness of the territory scare us — let's look forward and open paths in these woods. Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks.“Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar.”
Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks.
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Anthony Cao, Cole Kantgias Joint Introduction
FYWS: Community and Collaboration
12/10/14
Galvan
!!
! The collaborative writing process is a very common practice that can be traced
throughout literary history. A collaboration can consist simply of a group of writers writing about
a similar topic and sharing ideas, a group of writers co-authoring a piece and working in unison,
or any process which involves multiple authors working together. This process has been highly
valued in literature, and has arguably led to some of the best works of all time. Whether a part of
movements such as Transcendentalism or Feminism, a prominent group of creatives like
Bloomsbury, a co-authored novel by two peers, or just a casual discourse between authors, the
collaborative process has been valued through the ages. To this end, a number of collaborations
between female authors have developed throughout literary history which have contributed
greatly to the elevation of female status in literary, social and political spheres.
With this in mind, our discourse highlights three different types of collaborations,
chronologically highlighting three prominent collaborations that have impacted literary history in
a positive way, bringing the genius of the female author to light. The first such work we examine
is that of the Bloomsbury group, a mix of creative types headed by sisters Vanessa Bell and
Virginia Woolf who produced some of the period’s best literature and art respectively. Though
this group was not entirely composed of women, it can be argued that the presence of men gave
credence to their cause, and allowed them to be taken seriously. The second collaboration we
explore is between Maxine Kumin and Anne Sexton, two close friends who had an intimate
collaborative experience through their shared editing and spring-boarding of ideas between each
other. They shared a very close bond which was apparent in their writing as they both influenced
each other on a very personal level. Finally, we examine the feminist anthology This Bridge
Called My Back headed by editors Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. This large-scale
collaboration shows the sheer force of women in writing and is a prime example of a
collaboration that worked, as it highlighted a number of ideas pertaining to the feminist cause.
All of the three collaborations explored in this discourse highlight distinct typed of writing,
different groups of women, and show the impact of women in literary history. It was through
time and the help of these collaborations that these female writers were able to effect the
significant social changes that they did.
While observing and examining the social and political changes female authors have
effected is of great importance, it is equally important to examine the writers themselves. In our
group's second essay, we discuss the subject of the writers of the feminist movement and the
relations that formed between them as opposed to the texts they penned as well as their social
circumstances growing up. In discussing these topics, we seek to understand the reasons why
different writers such as Adrienne Rich and Cherrie Moraga developed different perspectives of
and means of advancing the feminist movement. Specifically, this second essay focuses on the
different upbringings of Rich and colored writers such as Bambara and Moraga and how they led
them to develop different ideas on how to advance the feminist cause. Since Rich was born and
raised in a white family, she did not have to deal with racial prejudice growing up and therefore
was more concerned about the effectiveness of poetry and art in conveying political messages
than the conflicts within the feminist movement. On the other hand, Bambara and Moraga dealt
with this prejudice on a daily basis and as such, they prioritized the goal of unifying the disparate
groups within the feminist movement.
By examining both the social changes that female writers were able to effect and the
relationships that developed between them, our group attempts to highlight the significant
accomplishments of female writers in literary history as well as bring to light the struggles they
faced in accomplishing their goals.
!
Cole Kantgias!
Community and Collaboration!
Profesor Margaret Galvan!
24 November 2014!
The Impact of Female Writing Collaborations on Literary History!
! Throughout literary history, writers have been inspired by their predecessors. The
likes of Thoreau, Woolf, Baldwin, and others who came before them continue to inspire
the writers of today. In some instances, writers of a certain school of thought inspired
countless followers who became their descendants; feminists like Wollstonecraft and de
Beauvoir serve as a prime example for the feminists who followed. However, another
form of this inspiration comes when writers work collaboratively, writing in sync to
advance a common good. There are countless examples of this latter form of
inspiration, whether it be an intimate relationship such as that shared between Maxine
Kumin and Anne Sexton, or a much larger relationship exemplified by the writers who
composed the anthology This Bridge Called My Back. Both of these examples and
countless more compose a much larger collaboration, that of females writing within
literary history. When looking at collaborations individually, and then on a much larger
scale, the impact of women writers in literary history can be viewed, and it is obvious
that they have made a remarkably positive impact. !
! Throughout literary history, women writers have struggled to gain a position of
prominence in the historically male dominated realm. Writers such as Woolf, Sexton,
and Rich — all prominent in their own right — struggled for acceptance at first, only to
finally be accepted as they are today. It was not an easy struggle. In order to be
accepted as writers and read by the general public, these women had to fight for their
voice to be heard. One way they did this was through the formation of writing
communities. It was through formation of these groups that women made their voices
heard in numbers. Early groups were formed between women and men, such as that of
the Bloomsbury group, which helped women gain credibility due to the presence of
men. Though Woolf and Bell became very established in their own right, it was the
humble beginnings of the Bloomsbury group and the men and women collaborating
within that made the public realize they were a force to be heard. However, as time
progressed, women were able to form exclusive groups, knowing that their opinions
would still be valued and listened to by the public. Feminist writings are a prime
example of this; though men have always written in favor of the movement as well,
distinct groups of women-only writers have come to flourish. The group of women who
wrote This Bridge Called My Back are a great example of this as they composed an
entire anthology “by women, for women” all on their own.!
! A prominent example of a community of writers that was led by women is that of
the Bloomsbury group. A class of artistic types, including writers, poets, painters, and
sculptors, this 19th century group of English men and women worked as an entity,
sharing ideas amongst each other. Vanessa Bell, a prominent painter of the time, is
considered to be the leader of this group with her sister, writer Virginia Woolf, a close
second in command. Vanessa Bell was considered to be the most maternal figure at the
center of Bloomsbury, and it is arguably because of her that the group flourished. The
group talked about “anything that came into [their] heads,” a fact that Bell was very
proud of as she is considered to be of utmost importance to the collaboration that
occurred between members of the Bloomsbury group (Bell, 77). Bell’s sister, Virginia
Woolf was also very important to the Bloomsbury group. She has become one of the
most prominent writers of our time, and this started with Bloomsbury. It was the passage
of ideas and thoughts among Bloomsbury members that gave her much of her
inspiration. Events like the “Bloomsbury parties” that took place are an example of this
passage of thought. Woolf cites the importance of these events in her diary entry “A
Bloomsbury Party” when she says “There is something indescribably congenial to me in
this easy artists’ talk” the values the same as my own and therefore right: no
impediments: life charming, good, and interesting: no effort: art brooding calmly over it
all and one of this attachment to mundane things” (Woolf, 24). It was with these simple
beginnings that the women of the Bloomsbury group got their footing. Woolf went on to
write prominent pieces such as Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown, which has come to be
accepted as a important story exploring characterization. Her “Portrait of a Londoner”
explores the life of a mysterious woman known simply as Mrs. Crowe. Both of these
women-centric works show the proliferation of the feminine being within literature.
Perhaps the reason that this group was able to flourish is that “they gave very different
views of the same idea. That only adds to one’s knowledge about the original, but more
can be learned from another source” (Bell, 74). Regardless of the reason, the impact of
women on literature via the Bloomsbury group is very quantifiable.!
! A more contemporary collaboration occurred in the 20th century between two
close friends, Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin. It was arguably a more intimate
collaboration as it simply involved the passage of ideas between the two poets. Their
collaboration was one of friendship and Miller believed that “the power of friendship
combined with work” will strongly influence “women’s writing of the future,” (Miller, 70).
The relationship between Sexton and Kumin is historically important as it marks an
example of two women working in direct collaboration as a result of an intense
friendship. Kumin said it perfectly when she remarked that she and Sexton were
“intimate friends and professional allies, [who] remained intensely committed to one
another’s writing and well-being” (Kumin, xix). Kumin attributes this freedom of
expression of thought to the idea that women were now freed from their traditional roles
as ‘goddesses of the hearth and bedroom,’ as they were now able to write about all of
their experiences. With respect to their actual writing, Kumin and Sexton had an
intriguing relationship, as they had completely different writing styles. This stark
difference is what they both cite as the reason they worked so well together. It seems
that by having completely different views of writing, they were able to critique and aid
one another in the completion of works. This relationship is an important example
highlighting the impact of women on literary history because it shows the results of an
intense and intimate friendship, untouched by the outside world. Kumin described it as a
friendship fueled by “a world of martinis, and fellow poet Anne Sexton on the other end
of a telephone line” (Miller, 71). Both Kumin and Sexton were able to hone their poetry
and write in sync, and became highly prized poets of the time— all because of a
collaboration they shared with each other. In selected pieces, the collaboration between
the two authors becomes highly obvious. A constant poetic dialogue is present,
including when Kumin wrote the introduction to Sexton’s poetry collection. Another
example of this occurs in Kumin’s “How it is,” a poem she wrote about her memories of
Anne Sexton following her suicide. Remembering her friends, Kumin remarks “Shall I
say how it is in your clothes? // A month after your death I wear your blue
jacket” (Kumin). This shows how intense their friendship was. Their professional
relationship is also evident when Kumin says “Dear friend, you have excited crowds //
with your example. They swell // like wine bags, straining at your seams” (Kumin). And it
is with this image that the reader is left of the Sexton-Kumin relationship; one of them
dead while the other remembers her lasting legacy with a metaphor of their favorite
pass time- powerful, indeed. !
! Another prime example of collaboration between female writers is exposed in the
anthology This Bridge Called My Back, a collection of feminist-style writings with the
focus of advancing the Women’s Right movement. A markedly different type of
collaboration, this group was composed of women only, in opposition to the Bloomsbury
group which was composed of men and women. With the purpose being to “lay down
the plans to cross over on to a new place where stooped labor cramped quarters
down” (Bambara, vi), the collaborators of This Bridge intended to bring women of all
shapes and races into a collaboration of a much larger scale. Perhaps the best example
of a collaboration between women, This Bridge was spearheaded by editors Cherrie
Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua who formed an initial bond, and then wished to bring it to
the world. The mission was “to express all women… the experiences which divide us as
feminists… intending to explore the cause and sources of, and solutions to these
divisions” (Moraga & Anzaldua, xxiii). Both Moraga and Anzaldua were aware of the
hardships facing women, and the fact that women of color were more often than not
excluded from the workings of white women, seeing as the editors were both women of
color themselves. It was with this grain that they went forth with their mission to try to
end this practice. In the process, they met a slew of talented writers along the way who
shared similar ideals and wanted to offer their works. Through this journey, a
collaboration stemming from the original collaboration was formed; the original
exchange of ideas between Moraga and Anzaldua became an exchange of ideas
between both of them as well as countless other writers who wished to contribute their
ideas to the anthology. This text has become a key piece of feminist ideology and plays
an important part in literary history. One of the only works of its kind, this text shows the
real impact of women and the power of an idea. It is a work by women for women, as it
explores the multitude of issues that are facing women of the time. It also shows the
power of female writers, and the change that has occurred in society to allow them to
get to this point. !
! Upon exposure to many different examples of collaboration, the importance of
women becomes apparent. In looking at a collaboration between a group of women and
men, an intimate relationship between two close friends, and between a group of
women exclusive to men, the impact of women writing is shown. All of these examples
cited produced prime works of literary importance. Each of these female oriented
collaborative communities created countless pieces that last until today. The
Bloomsbury group taught the world that women are a force to be reckoned with; the
collaboration and dissemination of ideas among members was both organic and
healthy. This led to countless spinoff works. The collaboration between Sexton and
Kumin shows the power of a friendship and the intimate writings shared between both of
the writers shows a deep care. The collaboration between the writers of This Bridge
show the true power of women in writing and the great lengths that they have come. In
all, each and every one of these collaborations prove the immense powerhouse of
women and their mark on literary history. !
! !
!!!!!
Anthony Cao
FYWS: Community and Collaboration
Galvan
11/12/14
Assignment 3
! Despite being published only a few years apart and pertaining to similar subjects,
Adrienne Rich's Blood Bread and Poetry: The Location of the Poet and Toni Cade Bambara and
Cherríe Moraga's introductions to This Bridge Called My Back vary greatly in how they
approach the matter of the feminist movement in the 1980s. While Rich focuses on the issue of
the role of art in politics and how others perceive it, Bambara examines a problem that exists at a
more fundamental level: the discord and lack of harmony in the feminist movement itself. By
examining the aspects of both literature and the feminist movement that each author focuses on,
we can observe the underlying factors that led Rich and Bambara to focus on different facets of
feminism. Growing up in a white family, Rich did not focus so much on the issue of race but that
of her gender and how it restricted her potential for political involvement. On the other hand,
Bambara's constant struggle with her own race and the white exclusivity of the feminist
movement led her to examine the lack of unity within the movement as the primary impediment
to progress.
Before we can discuss the circumstances that led Rich and Bambara to focus on the role
of art in politics and the discord in the feminist movement respectively, we must first understand
their ideologies regarding these subjects. In Blood Bread and Poetry, Rich emphasizes the
potential of poetry and, for that matter, art in general, to convey a political message. For her,
being able to write “directly and overtly as a woman, out of a woman's body and
experience” (Rich 182) was crucial to using poetry as a tool for political change. Indeed, Rich
believed that by imbuing her writing with all of the ideals the feminist movement embodied, she
could turn poetry into a medium that had to be recognized as more than a “decorative garnish on
the buffet table of the university curriculum, the ceremonial occasion, the national
celebration” (Rich 167).
In contrast, Bambara's focus lies with the members of the feminist movement rather than
the means through which they advance their cause, a fact made apparent by the first lines of her
foreword in which she addresses minority women as a whole as well as her repeated use of the
pronoun “we.” This emphasis on community rather than content reveals itself throughout the rest
of the foreword as well. Similarly, in her foreword to This Bridge called my Back, Moraga begins
by stressing the relationship between people and politic rather than poetry and politic. Moraga
states that the propagation of weapons of mass destruction has “ensured our shared status as a
world population of potential victims” (Moraga xv), demonstrating her belief in the importance
of interpersonal relations. Indeed, for writers such as Bambara and Moraga, the task at hand was
to teach members of the feminist movement, regardless of race and background, “the habit of
listening to each other and learning each other's ways of seeing and being” (Bambara vii).
Now that we have identified the different aspects that Rich, Moraga and Bambara chose
to focus on in their advocacy of the feminist movement, we can begin to examine the
circumstances and histories that led up to them. In Blood Bread and Poetry, Rich examines the
significance poetry holds for her as well as its ability to be used as a tool to convey political
messages. Through close examination, we will see that Rich's advocacy of the poem as a
political instrument stems from past experiences and influences: namely, the constantly
reinforced idea that poetry was not to be mixed with politics.
Poetry was a part of Rich's life ever since she was little. As she states, she grew up
“hearing and reading poems from a very young age, first as sounds, repeated, musical,
rhythmically satisfying in themselves” (Rich 168). It is important to note here that Rich's first
experiences with poetry were purely aesthetic in that she had no consideration for any meaning
beyond the aural pleasure of poetry at the time. In this way, her perception of the poem prompted
her to subconsciously define it as a form separate from politics, focusing on the sound of a word
rather than its meaning. Indeed, this initial attitude towards poetry had a great impact on how
Rich perceived it as she grew older. This influence becomes apparent when Rich notes that the
attitudes towards poetry she grew up with led her to “believe in poetry, in all art, as the
expression of a higher world view, what the critic Edward Said has termed “a quasi-religious
wonder, instead of a human sign to be understood in secular and social terms” (Rich 170). That is
to say, Rich believed that the work of the poet was something that existed beyond the scope of
what was considered everyday and normal, that it resided on some elevated plane of existence.
As she puts it, Rich thought that “poets were inspired by some transcendent authority and spoke
from some extraordinary height” and failed to realize that the idealization of certain poets was
merely a reflection of “the taste of a particular time or of particular kinds of people” (Rich 170).
Naturally, this glorification of the poet would prevent Rich from being able to relate to poetry
and obtain any sort of significant understanding of it, furthering the separation of poetry and
politic already planted in her mind. Furthermore, Rich herself notes that her outlook on society
was negatively influenced by the poetry that she read, observing that “my personal world view
was shaped in part by the poetry I had read, a poetry written almost entirely by white Anglo-
Saxon men, a few women, Celts and Frenchmen notwithstanding” (Rich 171). Indeed, this
observation is indicative of the fundamental difference between Rich's perspective and those of
colored women such as Bambara and Moraga; while Rich only became aware of the racial biases
that the poetry she read enforced later in life, Bambara and Moraga had to grapple with its
consequences from the very beginning.
So far we have seen that nearly all of Rich's prior experiences with poetry have, whether
consciously or unconsciously, led her to consider the poem as an art that exists purely for the
sake of aesthetic appreciation. In this case then, there must have been a turning point, something
that prompted Rich to consider the potential of poetry outside the strictly artistic realm. Indeed,
this turning point comes during Rich's college years in the form of Francis Otto Matthiessen and
Rich's discovery of W. B. Yeats’s work. As Rich notes of Matthiessen, “poetry, in his classroom,
never remained in the realm of pure textual criticism” (Rich 172). By realizing that poems
existed as more than just sound, Rich took first step in her discovery of the poem as a political
instrument. At this point, we can see her begin to become aware of poetry's existence outside of
the artistic realm as well as the tendency of academic institutions to try and imprison it within
this realm. In speaking of “New England racism against Black and Hispanic people”, Rich
observes that “it was, strangely enough, through poetry that I first began to try to make sense of
these things” (Rich 173). Through this statement, we can see Rich's ironic realization that
although schools tended to try and isolate poetry and art from political subjects, it was through
these mediums that she started to understand the very issues institutions tried to separate them
from. In addition, she says of Yeats's work, “it was this dialogue between art and politics that
excited me in his work, along with the sound of his language – never his elaborate mythological
systems” (Rich 174), demonstrating her growing awareness of the strength of poetry as a
political form.
While Rich's experiences with poetry from a young age led her to change her perception
of the medium and eventually advocate its use as a political tool, the circumstances of authors
such as Moraga and Bambara were of a very different nature. Unlike Rich, they were not born
and raised among white society and therefore had to deal with racial misgivings that Rich never
experienced. This additional adversity would inevitably have led to a change in priorities. While
Rich could devote her efforts to producing work that carried a strong message, Bambara and
Moraga had other concerns. In having to struggle with the matter of her race, they were made
painfully aware of the fact that in a movement which strove against the exclusivity of white male
dominated society, there existed an almost identical exclusivity. Hence, Bambara and Moraga
were presented with the additional task of unifying the feminist movement before it could strive
to effect significant social change.
This priority is immediately apparent in Bambara's writing as she begins her foreword to
This Bridge called my Back by mentioning the unifying force of “this collection of cables,
esoesses, conjurations and fusile missiles” (Bambara vi). In doing so, she manages to create a
sense of inclusiveness and draw the reader in as a part of the audience she is addressing. This
concept of unity is prevalent throughout the rest of the foreword as well, as Bambara observes
that “Now that we've begun to break the silence and begun to break through the diabolically
erected barriers and can hear each other and see each other, we can sit down with trust and break
bread together” (Bambara vi). Here, we can see that it is not the ability of women of color to
express themselves through literature that Bambara questions, but the togetherness of the
movement they wish to advance. It is not quite so much a matter of external challenges to
overcome (although those are numerous in their own right) but of internal issues that need to be
resolved. As Bambara puts it, the current struggle of colored women is “coming to terms with
community – race, group, class, gender, self – its expectations, supports, and lessons. And
coming to grips with its perversions – racism, prejudice, elitism, misogyny, homophobia, and
murder” (Rich vii).
By analyzing Bambara's foreword to This Bridge Called My Back, we can gain a clearer
understanding of the problems that she and other colored women seek to resolve as well as their
desires for the feminist movement. In order to further understand how these desires came to be
and how Bambara and others were made aware of the problems they faced, it is necessary to
examine Cherríe Moraga's preface and foreword. In stark contrast to Rich, Moraga introduces
almost immediately the topic of race. She quickly brings in a short anecdote about a scene she
witnessed on the subway, recalling a black boy who was assaulted by a white man and another
boy who was shot the day before. These two scenes and Moraga's reflection on them are very
important in distinguishing Moraga and Bambara's perspective from Rich's. Thinking back upon
these two incidents, Moraga thinks to herself “there are some women in this town plotting a
lesbian revolution. What does this mean about the boy shot in the head is what I want to
know” (Moraga xiv). This issue of race and the conflicts it is inherently associated with is
something Moraga and Bambara have always known due to their own race. As such, a feminist
movement that does not address the topic of race cannot satisfy these two authors who are fully
aware of the violence it can bring. In Moraga's words, “I want a movement that helps me make
some sense of the trip from Watertown to Roxbury, from white to Black” (Moraga xiv).
Furthermore, in her foreword, Moraga notes that “in the mid-70s, feminism, too, betrayed us in
its institutionalized Euro-centrism, its class prejudice, and its refusal to integrate a politic that
proffered whole freedom for women of color” (Foreword, Moraga, xvi). This is not to say that
Rich is ignorant of the issue of race and the problems it poses. Rather, although she may have
been aware of them, Rich did not have any experience of the violence often directed towards
African Americans because she belonged to the white community. As a result of this, it is quite
natural that her primary concern revolved around the ability of her work to effectively give voice
to her ideology.
Although Adrienne Rich's Blood Bread and Poetry and Toni Cade Bambara and Cherríe
Moraga's foreword and preface to This Bridge Called My Back were published only two years
apart, they present distinctly different perspectives on feminism and race. In her advocacy of the
feminist movement, Rich emphasizes the role that poetry and art can play in conveying political
ideologies, “persuading us emotionally of what we think we are 'rationally' against” (Rich 179).
On the other hand, Bambara and Moraga focus on the lack of harmony within the feminist
movement and the inevitable role that race plays in advancing it. Through close analysis of the
ideas these three authors present and examination of their respective works, we can come to see
that their current perspectives are the result of differences in upbringing and prior experience.