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<font size=4><b>Remembering Adrienne Rich: poet, activist and supporter
of Palestinian liberation<br><br>
</b></font>Submitted by Benjamin Doherty on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 14:46<br>
<font size=1>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/benjamin-doherty/remembering-adrienne-rich-poet-activist-and-supporter-palestinian-liberation" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/benjamin-doherty/remembering-adrienne-rich-poet-activist-and-supporter-palestinian-liberation<br>
</a></font><h1><b>Remembering Adrienne Rich: poet, activist and supporter
of Palestinian liberation</b></h1><font size=3>Submitted by Benjamin
Doherty on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 14:46 <br><br>
<img src="http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/820298895_7b4b7ce887_o.jpg" width=620 height=465 alt="[]">
<br><br>
Audre Lorde, Meridel Lesueur, and Adrienne Rich in 1980 at a writing
workshop in Austin, Texas. <br>
(<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/k-kendall">K.
Kendall</a>)<br><br>
American poet, activist and teacher Adrienne Rich passed away yesterday
at age 82. She is one of
<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/adrienne-rich">the most
influential poets of the late 20th century</a>.<br><br>
In the 1960s, she was involved in anti-war and women’s, black and queer
liberation struggles, and her poetry engaged these issues. During the
Clinton Administration in 1997,
<a href="http://www.hotink.com/8797.html">Rich famously refused the
National Medal of the Arts</a>, writing:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice.
But I do know that art–in my own case the art of poetry–means nothing if
it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The
radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a
devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token
artists while the people at large are so dishonored.<br><br>
</dl>Her 1980 essay
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=PaNdHqo-9wIC&lpg=PA229&ots=kQUGz8fExy&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q&f=false">
“Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”</a> challanged
second-wave feminists to see heterosexuality in practice as a kind of
sexual inequality and a characteristic of men’s power over women.
Addressing her feminist peers in the essay, she writes:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Feminist theory can no longer afford merely to voice a toleration of
“lesbianism” as an “alternative life-style,” or make token allusion to
lesbians. A feminist critique of compulsory heterosexual orientation for
women is long overdue.<br><br>
</dl>She adds:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>I am suggesting that heterosexuality, like mother-hood, needs to be
recognized and studied as a political institution–even, or especially, by
those individuals who feel they are, in their personal experience, the
precursors of a new social relation between the sexes.<br><br>
<br>
</dl><h2><b>Breaking Zionist taboos, supporting the
boycott</b></h2><font size=3>During her activist career, Adrienne Rich
was involved with
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Jewish_Agenda&oldid=414647307">
New Jewish Agenda</a> which broke Zionist taboos around Palestinian
existence and right to speak. In 2009,
<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/rich080209.html">she
endorsed the Palestinian call for academic and cultural boycott of
Israel</a> despite having reservations:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Until now, as a believer in boundary-crossings, I would not have
endorsed a cultural and academic boycott. But Israel’s continuing,
annihilative assaults in Gaza and the one-sided rationalizations for them
have driven me to re-examine my thoughts about cultural exchanges.
Israel’s blockading of information, compassionate aid, international
witness and free cultural and scholarly expression has become extreme and
morally stone-blind. Israeli Arab parties have been banned from the
elections, Israeli Jewish dissidents arrested, Israeli youth imprisoned
for conscientious refusal of military service. Academic institutions are
surely only relative sites of power. But they are, in their funding and
governance, implicated with state economic and military power. And US
media, institutions and official policy have gone along with all
this.<br><br>
</dl>Adrienne Rich’s essay
<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/239326">“Someone
is Writing a Poem”</a> considers the power and constraints of art to
intervene in politics, and is a crucial read for any
artist-activist.<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>In paradise every<br>
</i>
<dd>the desert wind is rising<br>
<dd>third thought<br>
</i>
<dd>in hell there are no thoughts<br>
<dd>is of earth<br>
</i>
<dd>sand screams against your government<br>
<dd>issued tent hell’s noise<br>
<dd>in your nostrils crawl<br>
<dd>into your ear-shell<br>
<dd>wrap yourself in no-thought<br>
<dd>wait no place for the little lyric<br>
<dd>wedding-ring glint the reason why<br>
<dd>on earth<br>
<dd>they never told you<br><br>
</dl><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180085">Wait</a>
(2006).<br><br>
<br>
</font>American poet, activist and teacher Adrienne Rich passed away
yesterday at age 82. She is one of the most influential poets of the late
20th century.<br><br>
In the 1960s, she was involved in anti-war and women’s, black and queer
liberation struggles, and her poetry engaged these issues. During the
Clinton Administration in 1997, Rich famously refused the National Medal
of the Arts, writing:<br><br>
There is no simple formula for the relationship of art
to justice. But I do know that art–in my own case the art of poetry–means
nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it
hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are
widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor
certain token artists while the people at large are so
dishonored.<br><br>
Her 1980 essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”
challanged second-wave feminists to see heterosexuality in practice as a
kind of sexual inequality and a characteristic of men’s power over women.
Addressing her feminist peers in the essay, she writes:<br><br>
Feminist theory can no longer afford merely to voice a
toleration of “lesbianism” as an “alternative life-style,” or make token
allusion to lesbians. A feminist critique of compulsory heterosexual
orientation for women is long overdue.<br><br>
She adds:<br><br>
I am suggesting that heterosexuality, like
mother-hood, needs to be recognized and studied as a political
institution–even, or especially, by those individuals who feel they are,
in their personal experience, the precursors of a new social relation
between the sexes.<br><br>
Breaking Zionist taboos, supporting the boycott<br><br>
During her activist career, Adrienne Rich was involved with New Jewish
Agenda which broke Zionist taboos around Palestinian existence and right
to speak. In 2009, she endorsed the Palestinian call for academic and
cultural boycott of Israel despite having reservations:<br><br>
Until now, as a believer in boundary-crossings, I
would not have endorsed a cultural and academic boycott. But Israel’s
continuing, annihilative assaults in Gaza and the one-sided
rationalizations for them have driven me to re-examine my thoughts about
cultural exchanges. Israel’s blockading of information, compassionate
aid, international witness and free cultural and scholarly expression has
become extreme and morally stone-blind. Israeli Arab parties have been
banned from the elections, Israeli Jewish dissidents arrested, Israeli
youth imprisoned for conscientious refusal of military service. Academic
institutions are surely only relative sites of power. But they are, in
their funding and governance, implicated with state economic and military
power. And US media, institutions and official policy have gone along
with all this.<br><br>
Adrienne Rich’s essay “Someone is Writing a Poem” considers the power and
constraints of art to intervene in politics, and is a crucial read for
any artist-activist.<br><br>
In paradise every<br>
the desert wind is rising<br>
third thought<br>
in hell there are no thoughts<br>
is of earth<br>
sand screams against your government<br>
issued tent hell’s noise<br>
in your nostrils
crawl<br>
into your ear-shell<br>
wrap yourself in no-thought<br>
wait no place for the little
lyric<br>
wedding-ring glint the reason why<br>
on earth<br>
they never told you<br><br>
Wait (2006).<br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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