Scope and arrangement
The Cheryl Clarke papers, 1969-2005, document Clarke's career as a poet, writer, critic and scholar who served as magazine editor, academic administrator, and public speaker. The collection is a testament to her life's work as a Black lesbian, feminist activist and demonstrates her commitment to promoting Black lesbian visibility and voices through writing as activism.
The collection consists largely of personal and professional correspondence and manuscripts, including drafts of her essays, articles, speeches, and poetry. The collection is organized into three series: Personal papers; Writing; and Professional papers.
The Cheryl Clarke papers are arranged in three series:
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ca. 1974-2005
The Personal papers series contains a biographical file with resumes, bibliographies, and autobiographical statements, as well as article clippings about Clarke and her writings, speeches, and general professional work. The Correspondence subseries features personal and professional exchanges with prominent Black LGBT writers and activists such as Joseph Beam, Jewelle Gomez, Audre Lorde, and Barbara Smith, organized by correspondent, as well as a general collection of personal and professional correspondence.
The Collected materials subseries consists of print media from various Black, feminist, LGBT, and political publications and organizations, including journals, magazines, newspapers, and booklets. The subseries is organized by publication and organization chronologically. Of note are a promotional booklet for the African Arts Fund, an organization founded, in 1985, to assist South African artists, and poet Amiri Baraka's manifesto, "Afrikan Women Unite...to Struggle", presented at the Afrikan Women's Conference in 1974. Also included are funeral programs and a general file of organizational literature and clippings.
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1969-2005
The Writing series comprises the bulk of the collection. This series contains drafts, professional correspondence, and clippings of Clarke's written work, including her poetry, articles, essays, scholarly reviews, and speeches, as well as the organizational records of Conditions Magazine.
The Early works subseries features a typescript copy of "The Life and Times of Assata Shakur, 1973-1977", written for the New Brunswick Committee for the Defense of Assata; an annotated typescript draft of the essay "Women, Blacks, Gays...the WAR Goes on...", and correspondence with the editor of Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women's Culture.
The Published works subseries, includes manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, reviews, and clippings related to her four books of poetry, Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1982), Living as a Lesbian (1986), Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry (1989) and Experimental Love (1993), as well as her book of criticism, "After Mecca": Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (2005), and her collected works, The Days of Good Looks: The Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke, 1980-2005 (2006). Additionally, there is a file for general poetry manuscripts.
The Articles and essays subseries contains twenty-seven published articles and essays, organized chronologically by date, which include drafts, correspondence, and clippings. The work focuses on Black, feminist, and LGBT themes, tackling racism, sexism and homophobia. There is also a general essay file.
The Reviews subseries consists of Clarke's scholarly book reviews and literary criticism essays of academic and creative works by other Black, lesbian, and feminist writers, such as Alice Childress, Alexis De Veaux, Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Cherry Muhanji, and Ann Petry. This subseries features drafts, manuscripts, clippings, and correspondence organized chronologically by publication date.
The Anthologies subseries features drafts and manuscripts of anthologized essays, poems, and stories as well as related correspondence and clippings organized chronologically by publication date.
The Speeches subseries contains annotated drafts and published excerpts of speeches for various conferences, talks, and events held at institutions such as the City University of New York (CUNY), Bates College, the Henrik-Martin Institute, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Frequent topics include the Black lesbian identity, anti-Black racism, LGBT issues, feminism, activism, and academia. This subseries is organized chronologically by date and also features related correspondence.
The Dissertation subseries includes annotated drafts and a final version of her doctorate thesis, "'After Mecca': The Impact of Black Women on Black Poetry after 1965", as well as degree candidacy forms and correspondence for the Graduate School-New Brunswick at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
The Unpublished works subseries features material for the Black Women Writers Project with Evelyn Hammond, such as interviews and correspondence with Black female writers like Becky Birtha, Carol Olivia Herron, and Barbara Smith. In addition to Balancing the Egg: A Lesbian Conversation, a conversational essay anthology coedited with Elizabeth Walber, the subseries contains three unpublished short stories, miscellaneous drafts, research material, and rejection notices, organized chronologically by date.
The Conditions subseries consists of the editorial, financial, contractual, and publishing records of Conditions: A Magazine of Writing by Women with an Emphasis on Writing by Lesbians. Clarke served as part of the magazine's Editorial Collective from 1981 to 1990. This subseries also contains office files that include correspondence with staff, contributors, and subscribers; meeting minutes; printed material; and a photocopy of the journal, as well as grant funding applications and subscriptions.
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ca. 1977-2005
The Professional series documents Clarke's involvement with various LGBT and feminist organizations, including the ASTRAEA National Lesbian Action Foundation, the CUNY Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS), the Geraldine Dodge Foundation's Poetry Festival, and New York Women Against Rape. She was an active member of these organizations and her contributions are represented by the correspondence, planning materials, and programs in the Organizations subseries. The Conferences and Events subseries contains material related to Clarke's participation in Black feminist organizations and writers' conferences, and include handwritten notes, correspondence, meeting minutes, programs, and promotional material for Black Feminist Retreats, Black Women Writer's Today, OutWrite, the Womyn of Color Forum, the NYC Celebration of Queer Culture, and Fire and Ink. Of note are a typewritten copy of Audre Lorde's "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", delivered at the Modern Language Association's "Lesbian and Literature Panel" in 1977, as well as Clarke's Audre Lorde Memorial Lecture at the 1996 OutWrite Conference. The series also includes files from her administrative career at Rutgers University; correspondence with her publisher, Nancy Bereano of Firebrand Books, other editors and publishers; and various letters of commendation and invitations to events.