Movement in Black

by Pat Parker

Pat Parker -- that revolutionary, raw and as they used to say, "right-on sister" -- would be celebrating her fifty-fifth birthday in 1999 had she not died of breast cancer ten years ago. To honor her work and call attention to the significance of her contributions, Firebrand Books is publishing a new, expanded edition of her classic, Movement In Black. With an incisive introduction by Cheryl Clarke, celebrations/ remembrances/tributes from ten outstanding African American women writers, and a dozen previously unpublished pieces, Movement In Black is a must read/ must have on your book shelf. Whether she was presenting her poetry on street corners, performing with other women -- writers, musicians, activists -- in bars and auditoriums, rallying the crowd at political events, preaching to the converted, or converting the ill-informed, Pat Parker was a presence. She wrote about gut the lives of ordinary Black people, violence, loving women, the legacy of her African American heritage, being queer. She was a woman who engaged life fully, both personally and as a political activist, linking the struggles for racial, gender, sexual, and class equality long before it was "PC" to do so. She died as she lived -- fighting forces larger than herself. The publication of Movement In Black is an opportunity, both for those who were around the first time and those who are new to her work, to experience and enjoy Pat Parker's power.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, LGBT, Queer, Nonfiction, Lesbian, African American

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Pat Parker was an American poet and activist. Both her poetry and her activism drew from her experiences as an African-American lesbian feminist. Her poetry spoke about her tough childhood growing up in poverty, dealing with sexual assault, and the murder of a sister.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these poems. I had never heard of her until I randomly picked up this book at a pridefest for cheap.

A Different World, one my favorite shows growing up, even quoted one of these poems but I'm not sure they got her name right.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

While searching on the internet for black authors and black poetry I came across a poem entitled...Movement in Black. I read the poem and then listened to it read aloud. I really liked the poem. I decided to purchase the book. Although I didn't like a lot of the poems that she wrote or I just simply couldn't relate to them some of them I could. For those readers who don't know Pat Parker, she was an African-American lesbian, feminist, poet and activist. Pat Parker participated in political activism and had early involvement with the Black Panther Party, Black Women's Revolutionary Council and formed the Women's Press Collective. She died in 1989 at the age of 45 from breast cancer.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

With some poets, you read their poems and good or bad, what you’ve done is read some poems. Pat Parker is different, reading these poems, and these tributes, and the end note from her partner, you feel like you got to know Pat Parker, got to love her.

[AJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thankful that I got to read Pat Parker's poems and tributes from those who loved her in the year 2026. Impermanence is a doozy, yet I am comforted by the realization that I have come across these poems 37 years after she transitioned from this realm. Loved it!

She is funny, direct, and someone I could easily see as a "problematic fave" due to how she articulates her feelings so honestly. I loved most of these poems. I especially loved the ones about nuances of romantic love (Solitary Lover, Metamorphsis) as well as those focused the things that feel salient to this chapter of life. Like this last stanza of A Moment Left Behind :

I do not claim all possible
creating myths of modern America.
I cannot swim an ocean
I attempt the width of a pool

Or this final stanza of Progeny , discussing the nuances of Black racial-emotional socialization within the U.S.

It is difficult
to teach my child
the beauty of flowers
in a field
at the same time
I warn her about
the dangers of
open spaces.

She also captures sociopolitical realities that persist. Like in The Best Nightmares :

In English Lit.
they told me
Kafka was good
because he created
the best nightmares ever.
I think I should go find that professor
& ask why
we didn't study
the S.F. Police Dept.

100/10, recommend!

[Loren Cahill · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible book! Pat Parker was a dear friend of Audre Lorde but never blew up as much as she did. I first heard about her through APG’s Black Feminist Breathing meditation. I’ve been hooked on her work ever sense. Some of the sharpest political analysis ever. Just wit beyond measure! Get you this book and starting quoting and sharing her work with others. So much to learn from her life and legacy!

[Lieutenant Retancourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un must de la littérature lesbienne, une poésie forte et sublime, exprimant la colère et l'injustice du racisme et de la lesbophobie mais aussi la joie de l'amour et de s'être libérée de l'hétérosexualité.

[Tasheika B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a Phenomenal Woman with expectional poems. If you knew Pat Parker you knew determation, scarfice, and Love! Read this book look in the mirror if you don't love who you see think of Pat Parker (Marty Dunham). I love Pat Parker she will never be forgotten!

[Emma Gabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

When i make love to you
i try
with each stroke of my tongue
to say i love you
to tease i love you
to hammer i love you
to melt i love you
& your sounds drift down
oh god!
oh jesus!
and i think -
here it is, some dude's
getting credit for what
a woman
has done,
again.

[Ezgi Neşe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read a few of these poems, but they have killed me nonetheless... So simple yet so eloquent and powerful.

[jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely incredible. i wish her work were more well-known and easier to find, because so many of the things she was writing about and fighting for are still so relevant today.

[Kate]

“Fantasy is the food/ of poets/ what blew my mind-/ is when i pinched/ myself to wake up/ & YOU/ were still here.”

[raluca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me come to you angry
come shaking with hate
come callused
and lay beside you

even more

Let me come to you strong
come sure and free
come powerful
and lay with you

[Shuli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pat Parker is quintessential reading for anyone interested in any kind of radical or social justice poetry but her influence is often obscured by more popular authors who show up more recently in black lesbian literature. I'm certainly not arguing that anyone should stop reading Audre Lorde or Alice Walker, just that there's a lineage that stretches past them!

Parker's poetry has a strong narrative element to it, much of it autobiographical, and uses her narrative skills to offer the experiences of the poet herself at the intersections of many different identities along with poignant insight into the lives of black lesbians in the 70s. She focus herself neatly on the real lived experiences of the folks in her community and speaks truth to power on every page.

She got her start reading her poetry publicly and it shows. Her best poems are the ones where her voice shines through and you feel her presenting her work to you across the decades--her weakest poems are the ones that are heart-wrenching in recordings but lose an element of their authenticity when memorialized on paper. Other reviewers have admonished her work as simple, but I don't think simplicity is a flaw. Western poetry is fixated on overly-complex flowery screeds but Parker celebrates simplicity, relishes in being straight-forward.

Finally, to really get your mind on Pat Parker as a poet, listen to her read aloud. Below she recites three different poems from Movement in Black (my personal three favorites, the ones that I feel best exemplify her and this collection):

"Woman Slaughter"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1A6B...

"Where will you be?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-fP7...

"Don't let the fascists speak"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuoZX...

Movement in Black offers precious advice on bravery and resilience, and feels just as necessary now nearly 40 years later as it did when it was first published in 1978.

[Seven · Rating 3 out of 5]

simple, but not trivial, but not profound...

[Sam Wills · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute leader - she moved in her own way and paved the way for others to follow. What an amazing poet!