The Days of Good Looks: The Prose And Poetry Of Cheryl Clarke, 1980 to 2005

by Clarke, Cheryl

• ISBN13: 9780786716753
• ISBN10: 0786716754
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-09
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Lauded by luminaries such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, and Joy Harjo, among others, the work of African American lesbian poet Cheryl Clarke has spoken on behalf of the black, feminist and gay movements for more than 25 years. Her writing has earned her distinction as a contemporary black feminist icon in the tradition of June Jordan. In fact, few writers have tackled hot-button issues of race and sexuality with as much force or fearless humor as Clarke. The Days of Good Looks her first new book of poetry in a decade collects the author's most popular poems and essays along with an array of new unpublished writing.

Author Biography

Poet and activist Cheryl Clarke was educated at Howard University and Rutgers University. Her books of poetry include Experimental Love (Firebrand Books, 1993),; Humid Pitch (1989); Living as a Lesbian (1986); and Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1983). Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The Black Scholar, The Kenyon Review, Belles Lettres, The World in Us: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Poetry, and Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (1992). Her most recent book is a history of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s titled After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (Rutgers, 2005). Clarke is the Director of the Office of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian-Gay Concerns at Rutgers University. She lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Narratives: 1980-1985
Poems
Of Althea and Flaxie	p. 3
Ruby the runaway	p. 6
Gail	p. 11
The johnny cake	p. 13
Cantaloupe	p. 19
If you black get back	p. 22
Essays
Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance (1981)	p. 25
Black, Brave, and Woman, Too (1982)	p. 43
The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community (1983)	p. 61
New Notes on Lesbianism (1983)	p. 81
Living as a Lesbian: 1986-1990
Poems
14th street was gutted	p. 91
The woman who raised me	p. 92
I come to the city	p. 93
No more encomiums	p. 94
Vicki and Daphne	p. 97
Intimacy no luxury	p. 101
Nothing	p. 102
The change	p. 104
We are everywhere	p. 106
Since my lover left	p. 107
Living as a lesbian underground: a futuristic fantasy	p. 108
An exile I have loved	p. 112
Living as a lesbian on the make	p. 113
Sexual preference	p. 114
Kittatinny	p. 115
Living as a lesbian at 35	p. 117
Essays
The Space in Me Where Baldwin Lives (1987)	p. 119
Silence and Invisibility: Costly Metaphors (1989)	p. 123
Saying the Least Said, Telling the Least Told: The Voices of Black Lesbian Writers (1990)	p. 133
Knowing the Danger and Going There Anyway (1990)	p. 145
... She Still Wrote Out the Word Kotex on a Torn Piece of Paper Wrapped Up in a Dollar Bill ... (1990)	p. 155
Humid Pitch: 1991-1995
Poems
Party pants	p. 191
Bulletin	p. 193
Stuck	p. 195
Sisters Part	p. 198
Ella Takes Up the Slack	p. 200
Kitchen Mechanics Sequence	p. 202
Frances Michael	p. 205
Rabbit	p. 207
High School	p. 215
No Place	p. 219
Essays
The Homoerotic Other (1991)	p. 221
The Everyday Life of Black Lesbian Sexuality (1991)	p. 225
Two Rich and Rounding Experiences (1991)	p. 237
Living the Texts Out: Lesbians and the Uses of Black Women's Traditions (1993)	p. 247
Experimental Love: 1996-1999
Poems
A Great Angel	p. 275
Living as a lesbian underground, ii	p. 276
Greta Garbo	p. 280
Movement	p. 281
Passing	p. 289
Buttons	p. 290
Interlude	p. 291
Rondeau	p. 292
Remember the Voyage	p. 293
Dykes Are Hard	p. 294
Living as a lesbian at 45	p. 295
Najeeb	p. 297
Elegy	p. 298
An old woman muses from her basement	p. 299
Essays
A House of Difference: Audre Lorde's Legacy to Lesbian and Gay Writers (1996)	p. 301
Transferences and Confluences: The Impact of the Black Arts Movement on the Literacies of Black Lesbian Feminism (1999)	p. 319
The Days of Good Looks: 2000-2005
Poems
Living as a lesbian underground fin de siecle	p. 361
Bald Woman	p. 362
Billie Holliday	p. 363
Please Read	p. 364
James dean longing	p. 365
Urban Epitaphs After 9/11/01	p. 367
Dreams of South Africa	p. 368
A Sister's Lament as She Poses for an AP Photograph Holding Her Dead Sister's Portrait	p. 372
The days of good looks	p. 374
Essays
Lesbianism, 2000 (2000)	p. 379
Pomo Afro Homo Vexing of Black Macho in the Age of AIDS (2005)	p. 391
The Prong of Permanency, a Rant (2005)	p. 403
Ecstatic Fallacies: The Politics of the Black Storefront (2005)	p. 409
Acknowledgments	p. 415
About the Author	p. 419
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