#25. This Bridge Called My Back, ed. Cherríe Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa

[whereweather.livejournal.com]

#25. This Bridge Called My Back, ed. Cherríe Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa
1981/'83, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press

This is another book that is so full of... ideas and thinking and newness, and that has so many visions and so much emotion in it, and that contains both so much I can identify with and so much that seems deeply foreign -- I don't mean only the experiences and attitudes of the women who wrote it, but also, which is harder for me to assimilate, the lens through which they view the world: the moment of history, cultural and political, in which thy formulated these ideas and these manifestoes -- that I feel overwhelmed when I try to think about posting a review of it.

But I also feel kind of like a coward for backing out of reviewing it. What to do? I think I will let it simmer for a while. I may also read the much more recent companion book to it (this bridge we call home, used, I see, as an icon for this group ;), and see if that helps me understand, and bridge the thirty years of historical difference between these women and me.

[tags I would add if I could: assimilation, sociology, spirituality [or: religion/spirituality], puerto rican, a: morales rosario, a: rushin donna kate, a: wong nellie, a: lee mary hope, a: littlebear naomi, a: lim genny, a: yamada mitsuye, a: valerio anita, a: cameron barbara, a: levins morales anita, a: carillo jo, a: daniels gabrielle, a: moschkovich judit, a: davenport doris, a: gossett hattie, a: smith barbara, a: smith beverly, a: clarke cheryl, a: noda barbara, a: woo merle, a: quintanales mirtha, a: anzaldua gloria, a: alarcon norma, a: combahee river collective, a: canaan andrea, a: parker pat] 

(Also, apropos of nothing: Whoo! Halfway through! This book feels like an appropriate one for that milestone.)

Comments

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I tried to read this bridge we call home when it first came out and felt a certain distance to it. I've never been entirely sure why.

TBCMB is mother text for me because it wasn't a part of academic feminist canon when I first got a hold of the Kitchen Table edition* - it was street level activist reading and it had a certain immediacy that was applicable to where I was at then. Even now I can pull it out and still glean insights from it that resonate today. I'll be interested to see where your reading takes you.

Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color is a more organic follow-up to Bridge, IMO. It was published by Aunt Lute.

*Note: The Kitchen Table edition (1983-4) is the 2nd. edition. Persephone Press published the 1st. in 1981.

[whereweather.livejournal.com]

[oops, previously commented using the wrong login.]

thank you -- that (_making face_) looks like it might be an interesting read. i see it was published in 1990, just about halfway between TBCMB and TBWCH.

one of the things i found so surprising about TBCMB is that i had heard of it, as you say, as "part of academic feminist canon." so i wasn't expecting so much of it to be so direct, so experimental, or so autobiographical. that's another reason it's taking me a while to process, i think.

(by the way... have i met you? were you at wiscon this summer?)

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome.

one of the things i found so surprising about TBCMB is that i had heard of it, as you say, as "part of academic feminist canon." so i wasn't expecting so much of it to be so direct, so experimental, or so autobiographical. that's another reason it's taking me a while to process, i think.

That directness is what makes it work, IMO.

And yeah, I was at WisCon this year so we probably passed like ships in the night!