Ironically during this time period, the poet Adrienne Rich had also just died , of natural causes, after a a long and productive life devoted to poetry, essay writing, feminism, anti-racism and social justice. In my own experience, and in my reading of history, I have seen how anti-racism and feminism have been portrayed as somehow in opposition to each other. Rich, in her life, demonstrated the possibility of radical integrity.
Alice Walker notes in this interview (which followed on Democracy Now! the interview she had done about Trayvon Martin),
I think her legacy for all of us is to continue to believe in the power of art, especially in the power of poetry, and to keep moving and not to be dissuaded, not to be discouraged, but to take heart from a woman who lived for 82 years giving her very best, growing out of every shell that society attempted to force her into to become this really amazing figure of inspiration and hope and love.
Now is a time when we need such inspiration.
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