Research Catalog

Title

Cheryl Clarke papers, 1960-2005.

Author

Clarke, Cheryl, 1947-

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

4.4 linear feet (11 boxes)

Summary

• The Cheryl Clarke Papers, 1969-2005, document her career as a poet, writer, critic and scholar who served as magazine editor, academic administrator and public speaker. The collection is a testament to her life's work as a black, lesbian, feminist activist and demonstrates her commitment to promoting black lesbian visibility and voices through writing as activism.
• The collection consists largely of personal and professional correspondence and manuscripts, including drafts of her essays, articles, speeches, and poetry. The collection is organized into three series.
• The Personal Papers series, ca. 1974-2005, contains a biographical file with resumes, bibliographies, and article clippings, in addition to personal and professional correspondence with prominent black LGBT writers and activists such as Joseph Beam, Jewelle Gomez, Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith, organized by correspondent, as well as a general collection of personal and professional correspondence. The Collected Materials sub-series consists of print media from various black, feminist, LGBT and political publications and organizations, including journals, magazines, newspapers and booklets. The sub-series is organized by publication and organization chronologically, and also contains funeral programs and a general file of organizational literature and clippings.
• The Writings series, ca. 1977-2005, comprises the bulk of the collection and contains drafts, professional correspondence, and clippings of Clarke's published written work, including her poetry, articles, essays, scholarly reviews, and speeches, as well as unpublished material and the organizational records from her time on the Editorial Collective of "Conditions" magazine.
• The Professional series, ca. 1977-2005, documents Cheryl Clarke's involvement with various LGBT and feminist organizations through correspondence, planning materials and programs. The series also includes files from her administrative career at Rutgers University, correspondence with her publisher, Nancy Bereano of Firebrand Books, and other editors and publishers, and various letters of commendation and invitations to events.

Subjects

• Black author
• African American women scholars
• Jordan, June, 1936-2002
• Gomez, Jewelle, 1948-
• Rich, Adrienne, 1929-2012
• African American feminists
• Lesbians > United States
• African American women authors
• Beam, Joseph
• Shakur, Assata
• Dove, Rita
• African American women critics
• Smith, Barbara, 1946-
• College teachers > United States
• Feminists > United States
• African American college teachers
• African American women college administrators
• African American lesbians
• Lorde, Audre
• Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

• Cheryl Clarke

Biography (note)

• Cheryl Clarke is a black lesbian poet, writer, critic, scholar, and activist. She was born on May 16, 1947 and raised in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Howard University in 1969 with a Bachelor's degree in English, she attended graduate school at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 1974, she obtained a Master of Arts in English from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where she later earned a Master of Social Work and a Doctorate degree in Literatures in English.
• Clarke worked as director of Rutgers' Office of Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities on the New Brunswick Campus from 1992 to 2009, and subsequently served as Dean of Students for the Livingston Campus until her retirement in 2013. As a member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, she taught courses on black women writers, the Black Freedom Movement, and LGBT black writers of the AIDS epidemic.
• A prolific poet, essayist and writer, Clarke is a central figure in the tradition of American black lesbian poetry. She began writing poetry while studying at Howard University in the late 1960s, at the height of the Black Power and Black Arts Movements. She became a member of the Combahee River Collective, a Boston-based black feminist lesbian organization, and attended their first black feminist retreat in 1977. Clarke later became involved with Kitchen Table: Woman of Color Press, a feminist press founded by Barbara Smith in 1980.
• In 1981, Clarke joined the Editorial Collective of "Conditions: A Feminist Magazine of Writing by Women with a Particular Emphasis on Writing by Lesbians", an annual literary journal founded in 1976 by Elly Bulkin, Jan Clausen, Irena Klepfisz and Rima Shore that published the works of feminist and lesbian writers like Barbara Banks, Enid Dame, Audre Lorde, Chirlane McCray, Cherrie Moraga, Sapphire, and Shay Youngblood. Until 1990,, Clarke helped edit and publish nine issues with the all-lesbian Editorial Collective, which included Dorothy Allison, Jewelle Gomez, Carroll Oliver, Mirtha Quintanales, and Barbara Smith.
• Clarke has published four volumes of poetry: "Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women", "Living as a Lesbian", "Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry, and "Experimental Love", which were collected in "The Days of Good Looks: The Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke, 1980-2005".
• In addition to her poetry, Clarke is a prominent literary critic who has reviewed the work of other black, lesbian and feminist women writers such as Alice Childress, Alexis De Veaux, Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Cherry Muhanji, and Ann Petry. In 2004, she published "'After Mecca'": Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement," a critical monograph on the black women writers of the Black Arts Movement based on her doctoral dissertation. Her essays, reviews and articles have been published in journals such as "The Advocate," "African American Review," "Belles Lettres," "The Black Scholar," "Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters,", "Gay Community News," "Lambda Book Report," "Sinister Wisdom," and "Soujourner: The Women's Forum".
• Clarke's written work has been anthologized in "Black Like Us: A Century of African-American Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Fiction," "Does Your Mama Know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories," "Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology," and "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color".

Call Number

Sc MG 642

OCLC

1196204560

Author

Clarke, Cheryl, 1947-

Title

Cheryl Clarke papers, 1960-2005.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

volume

Biography

Cheryl Clarke is a black lesbian poet, writer, critic, scholar, and activist. She was born on May 16, 1947 and raised in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Howard University in 1969 with a Bachelor's degree in English, she attended graduate school at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 1974, she obtained a Master of Arts in English from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where she later earned a Master of Social Work and a Doctorate degree in Literatures in English.

Clarke worked as director of Rutgers' Office of Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities on the New Brunswick Campus from 1992 to 2009, and subsequently served as Dean of Students for the Livingston Campus until her retirement in 2013. As a member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, she taught courses on black women writers, the Black Freedom Movement, and LGBT black writers of the AIDS epidemic.

A prolific poet, essayist and writer, Clarke is a central figure in the tradition of American black lesbian poetry. She began writing poetry while studying at Howard University in the late 1960s, at the height of the Black Power and Black Arts Movements. She became a member of the Combahee River Collective, a Boston-based black feminist lesbian organization, and attended their first black feminist retreat in 1977. Clarke later became involved with Kitchen Table: Woman of Color Press, a feminist press founded by Barbara Smith in 1980.

In 1981, Clarke joined the Editorial Collective of "Conditions: A Feminist Magazine of Writing by Women with a Particular Emphasis on Writing by Lesbians", an annual literary journal founded in 1976 by Elly Bulkin, Jan Clausen, Irena Klepfisz and Rima Shore that published the works of feminist and lesbian writers like Barbara Banks, Enid Dame, Audre Lorde, Chirlane McCray, Cherrie Moraga, Sapphire, and Shay Youngblood. Until 1990,, Clarke helped edit and publish nine issues with the all-lesbian Editorial Collective, which included Dorothy Allison, Jewelle Gomez, Carroll Oliver, Mirtha Quintanales, and Barbara Smith.

Clarke has published four volumes of poetry: "Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women", "Living as a Lesbian", "Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry, and "Experimental Love", which were collected in "The Days of Good Looks: The Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke, 1980-2005".

In addition to her poetry, Clarke is a prominent literary critic who has reviewed the work of other black, lesbian and feminist women writers such as Alice Childress, Alexis De Veaux, Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Cherry Muhanji, and Ann Petry. In 2004, she published "'After Mecca'": Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement," a critical monograph on the black women writers of the Black Arts Movement based on her doctoral dissertation. Her essays, reviews and articles have been published in journals such as "The Advocate," "African American Review," "Belles Lettres," "The Black Scholar," "Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters,", "Gay Community News," "Lambda Book Report," "Sinister Wisdom," and "Soujourner: The Women's Forum".

Clarke's written work has been anthologized in "Black Like Us: A Century of African-American Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Fiction," "Does Your Mama Know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories," "Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology," and "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color".

Connect to:

Finding aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 642