Home Girls

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology is a collection of Black lesbian and Black feminist writing, edited by Barbara Smith. The anthology was first published in 1983 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, and was reissued by Rutgers University Press in 2000.^[1]

History

The book grew out of Conditions magazine's November 1979 issue, "Conditions 5: the Black Women's Issue", originally edited by Barbara Smith and Lorraine Bethel. Conditions 5 was "the first widely distributed collection of Black feminist writing in the U.S."^[2]

Critical reception for Home Girls has been mostly positive. One reviewer for the Black American Literature Forum praises the book for its sense of unity and black feminist perspective. As the article states, “While many of the book's poems strike me as self-indulgent and forced, the majority of the selections are both finely honed and provocative. Herein lies the strength of Home Girls. It consciously broaches issues which have heretofore been given only a faint hearing and thus challenges the reader to rethink not only the past and present, but also the future.”^[3]

Contributors

• Cheryl L. Clarke
• Michelle Cliff
• Barbara Smith
• Bernice Johnson Reagon
• Jewelle Gomez
• June Jordan
• Alice Walker
• Audre Lorde
• Luisah Teish
• Toi Derricotte
• Chirlane McCray
• Becky Birtha

and others...

See also

• Lesbianism
• Black feminism
• Womanism
• Critical social theory
• African-American literature

References

2. Smith, Barbara et al. (1983). Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, p. 1.
3. Munro, C. Lynn (1984). "Review of Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, by Barbara Smith". Black American Literature Forum 18 (4): 175–177.