American Women — Poetry

  • Poetry from Violence (Edited) / Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco

    Poetry from Violence (edited version), a poetry reading in conjunction with the San Francisco Conference on Violence Against Women (to be held December 4 & 5, 1976). This reading was held at Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco, November 19, 1976. Contents: Intro by Ruth Hughes, who reads a poem; Kathy Barr: A Woman Is Sitting…

  • Susan Griffin and Nellie Wong at the Feminist Perspectives on Pornography conference

    Susan Griffin, poet, playwright and author, and Nellie Wong, poet and activist, read on the opening night of the Feminist Perspectives on Pornography Conference in San Francisco on November 17, 1978, organized by Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM). Lilia Medina introduces the reading. Griffin reads her poem Deer Skull (for Hallie) and…

  • Women poets reading at Cody’s Bookstore (Part 1 only)

    Women’s poetry reading sponsored by the Berkeley Poets Commune, at Cody’s Bookstore on April 18, 1972. The poets are: Sharon Ulrich, Lynda Koolish, Barbara Gravelle, Judith Stevens, Susan Griffin, Jeanne Lance, Maggie Cloherty, and Rachel Nahem. Note: This is the first half of the reading. The second half of the same reading was scheduled for…

  • Alice Walker reads Fame from her book You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down / Karla Tonella

    Alice Walker reads her short story “Fame” from her book of short stories, “You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down,” at the San Francisco Women’s Building on May 23, 1981. Susanne Lee and Karla Tonella recorded the reading. Walker is the author of three books of poetry: “Once” (1968), “Revolutionary Petunias and other Poems” (1973),…

  • Alice Walker reads poetry: Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll see you in the morning / Alan Soldofsky

    Alice Walker, Black woman poet and novelist, reads from her new book of poetry “Good night, Willie Lee, I’ll see you in the morning” at Cody’s Bookstore in Berkeley on September 26th, 1979. Walker reads some poems that are not featured in the book. Poems read include I said to poetry, On sight, Overnights, If…

  • Wanda Coleman interviewed by Opal Palmer Adisa

    Poet Opal Palmer Adisa interviews writer/poet Wanda Coleman, author of Mad Dog, Black Lady, African Sleeping Sickness and Hand Dance, among other books. Coleman discusses when she found her poetic voice, talks about the function of poetry, her personal encounters with anti-Black discrimination, and about the reluctance of white liberals to discuss issues that affect…

  • Marge Piercy: reading and thoughts

    Marge Piercy, poet and novelist, reads her poems and talks about poetry. She announces she has four books of poetry: Breaking Camp, Hard Loving, To Be of Use, and Living in the Open (at press now); and three novels: Going Down Fast (about urban renewal in Chicago), Dance Eagle to Sleep (60s youth movement) and…

  • Adrienne Rich reading her poetry

    Adrienne Rich reads and comments on her poems at the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco, CA on April 25, 1974. The reading was sponsored by the Poetry Center of San Francisco. She is introduced by Kathy (her last name is not given). She begins with poems from her book “Diving into the Wreck” (published…

  • Majority report, December 4, 1982: Barbara Christian

    Barbara Christian (1943 – 2000) delivers a speech as part of the lecture series on “Gender, Race and Class in Society” sponsored by the Center for Research on Women (CROW) at Stanford University, April 1982. Christian is chair of the Afro-American Studies Department at UC Berkeley and author of “Black Women Novelists, 1892-1977: the Development…

  • Frances Jaffer

    The San Francisco-based poet Frances Jaffer (1921-1999) reads from her work, talks about her life and discusses feminist poetics with Shelley Messing. Produced by Messing for the Drama & Literature Department of WBAI with technical assistance from Viv Sutherland.