THE RELEVANT QUEER: Feminist Poet and Activist Pat Parker, Born January 20, 1944

Pat Parker in Pleasant Hill, CA, 1989. Photo Robert Giard
Pat Parker in Pleasant Hill, CA, 1989. Photo Robert Giard

“Take the strength that you may wage a long battle. Take the pride that you can never stand small.”

TRQ: Pat Parker, Born January 20, 1944

Feminist poet and activist Pat Parker was born on January 20, 1944. Known for both her poetry and activism, Parker joined the Black Panther Party, the Black Women’s Revolutionary Council, and started the Women’s Press Collective. Fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ and communities of color, Parker created a legacy of lesbian power and strength.

The youngest of four daughters, Parker was born in Houston, Texas. Supported by her father to take “the freedom train of education,” she moved at age 17 to California to attend the Los Angeles City College, where she earned her undergraduate degree. Wanting to pursue a career in art and poetry, Parker earned her graduate degree at San Francisco State College. 

In 1962, Parker married Ed Bullins, a playwright. According to Parker, Bullins was abusive, and she lived the four years of their marriage “scared to death.” She then married writer and publisher Robert F. Parker and had two children. Deciding that marriage was not for her, they divorced. 

She had her first reading of her poetry in 1963. Her style is hopeful and tender, yet often marked by sharp social commentary grounded in spoken word tradition and radical politics. By the late 1960s, Parker identified as lesbian and played a prominent civil rights activist in the Bay Area. 

She once explained that the professional challenge of “competing in a male poetry scene” strengthened her African-American lesbian feminist voice in writing about political issues of the day: civil rights, Vietnam, and empowered sexuality. Together with white Bay Area poet Judy Grahn, she made the rounds between women’s bookstores, bars, coffeehouses and festivals giving performances that mixed poetry and music. 

Parker met and befriended activist Audre Lorde in 1969. They met, visited and exchanged letters for twenty years. Several of her poems from these years, including “Child of Myself” (1972), “Pit Stop” (1973), and “Movement in Black” (1978) were included in anthologies and publications. 

In 1976, Parker’s sister Shirley Jones was shot and killed by her husband. This inspired the autobiographical “Womanslaughter” (1978): 

Her things were his 

including her life. 

The perpetrator was convicted of “womanslaughter”, not murder, because 

Men cannot kill their wives. 

They passion them to death. 

From 1978 to 1987, Parker worked as the medical coordinator for the Oakland Feminist Women’s Health Center. She also took on national leadership positions on women’s health, domestic abuse and sexual violence. In 1979, Parker joined Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins and other poets and musicians to tour with the Varied Voices of Black Women. Parker testified before the United Nations and joined two delegations to Kenya and Ghana. 

In 1989, Parker died of breast cancer. Marty Dunham, her partner, donated her archives to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard. The Complete Works of Pat Parker were published in 2016. In 2019 she was one of the first fifty honorees inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall National Monument. 

Pat Parker and Audre Lorde, 1981. Photo by Susan D. Fleischmann, Courtesy of Schlesinger Library.2
Pat Parker and Audre Lorde, 1981. Photo by Susan D. Fleischmann, Courtesy of Schlesinger Library
Pat Parker, 1975. Photo Paula Wallace
Pat Parker, 1975. Photo Paula Wallace
Pat Parker reading Movement in Black at Cal State, LA with her niece, two sisters, and the writer Ayofemi Stowe Folayan in March 1989
Pat Parker reading Movement in Black at Cal State, LA with her niece, two sisters, and the writer Ayofemi Stowe Folayan in March 1989
Pat Parker and Ann during the Pat Parker Poetry Tour, 1975. Photo Unknown
Pat Parker and Ann during the Pat Parker Poetry Tour, 1975. Photo Unknown
Audre Lorde and Pat Parker read at the The Women’s Building, San Francisco, February 7, 1986
Audre Lorde and Pat Parker read at the The Women’s Building, San Francisco, February 7, 1986
Pat Parker in Pleasant Hill, CA, 1989. Photo Robert Giard
Pat Parker in Pleasant Hill, CA, 1989. Photo Robert Giard

About the Authors:

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and he is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

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Sources:

Poetry Foundation

Ubuntu Biography Project

Legacy Project Chicago

MADE IN BRAZIL: Jullio Reis, Piero Rechia & Patrick Braunn by Pedro Pedreira

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