Adrienne Rich (1929–2012)

Join Porter Square Books, the New Words Remnants Collective, Women, Action & the Media, and the Graduate Consortium of Women’s Studies for a tribute and celebration of Adrienne Rich with Alison Bechdel, Robin Becker, Cynthia Enloe, Evelyn Hammonds, and Kate Rushin.

The death of Adrienne Rich a few months ago struck so many of us as the passing of a literary icon and also of a pivotal figure in forging the powerful fusion of literature and politics out of which so much feminist energy flowed. For multiple communities, Adrienne was a towering figure. This inspired some of us from New Words Bookstore to imagine that there should be a feminist tribute to Adrienne.

Alison Bechdel is the author of the bestselling memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which was named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, People, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Village Voice, and San Francisco Chronicle, among others. For twenty-five years, she wrote and drew the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, a visual chronicle of modern life--queer and otherwise--considered "one of the preeminent oeuvres in the comics genre, period." (Ms.) Bechdel is guest editor of Best American Comics, 2011, and has drawn comics for Slate, McSweeney's, Entertainment Weekly, Granta, and The New York Times Book Review.

Robin Becker professor of English and women’s studies at The Pennsylvania State University, is the author of six collections of poetry, including The Horse Fair, All-American Girl, and Giacometti’s Dog. In 2002, the Frick Art and Historical Center in Pittsburgh published Venetian Blue, a limited-edition chapbook of Becker’s art poems. Becker is the recipient of individual fellowships from the Bunting Institute, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000, she won the George W. Atherton III Award for Excellence in Teaching from Penn State. For the Women's Review of Books, Becker writes a column on poetry called “Field Notes” and serves as poetry editor.

Cynthia Enloe is research professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and has appeared on NPR and written numerous articles on feminism, militarization, and globalization. She is the author of Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War, The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire, and co-author of The Real State of American Atlas.

Evelynn Hammonds is the Dean of Harvard College and the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies. She is the author of Childhood's Deadly Scourge: The Campaign to Control Diphtheria in New York City, 1880-1930, many scholarly articles and the co-editor of a book published this past fall entitled, The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics.

Kate Rushin is the author of The Black Back-Ups. Her “The Bridge Poem” appears in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, a ground-breaking feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Recipient of the Rose Low Rome Memorial Poetry Prize and the Grolier Poetry Prize, her work is widely anthologized and has been published in such journals as Callaloo.

Please Note: This event will take place at the Stata Center at MIT.

Location: Street: Stata Center, MIT Additional: 32 Vassar St City: Cambridge, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 02139 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

To celebrate the life and legacy of writer and feminist icon Adrienne Rich, who died on March 27th of 2012, Charis invites community members to read original works of tribute or reflection in honor of Rich's contributions to literature, poetry, and feminist culture. Featured performers include Jessica Handler, Azi Golshan, and more TBA.

Location: Street: 1189 Euclid Ave NE City: Atlanta, Province: Georgia Postal Code: 30307-1509 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Adrienne Rich , A Human Eye: Essays on Art in Society, 1997-2008.

Acclaimed local poet and scholar Adrienne Rich will read from her new book, A Human Eye, a collection of essays focusing on the complex relationship between art and social justice. For more than three decades, Rich’s writing has been praised for its lucidity, courage, and range of concerns. In A Human Eye, she examines a diverse selection of writings and their place in past and present social disorders and transformations. Examining a range of subjects, from an anthology of Iraqi poetry to writing and poetry on gay politics, Rich pushes us toward examining art as social dialogue, while simultaneously reflecting the awe and beauty that is ever present in the written word. (booksense)… (more)