This week on From the Vault, we listen to work of artist Alta Gerry (simply known as Alta in the poetry world), an award-winning poet credited with opening one of the early feminist press houses in 1969. Alta's Shameless Hussy Press created space for women's voices at a critical point in the movement known as second-wave feminism, publishing work from authors like Susan Griffin, Pat Parker, Mitsuye Yamada, and Alta's own first collection of poetry, Freedom's in Sight. She also published the first edition of Ntozake Shange's Obie Award-winning work, Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.
In the recording featured in this episode, Alta reads her poetry accompanied by classical guitar, and discusses poetry with Ruth Rosen and Isabel Welsh from Pacifica KPFA studios on November 12, 1972.
Alta's collection of poetry, The Shameless Hussy, won the American Book Award in 1981.
From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.
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