Archive of Style

Poet, critic, and activist Cheryl Clarke was born in Washington, DC. She earned her BA from Howard University and her MA and PhD from Rutgers University. Clarke is the author of five collections of poetry: Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1983), Living as a Lesbian (1986), Humid Pitch (1989), Experimental Love (1993), and By My Precise Haircut (2016), which won a Hilary Tham Capital Competition. She wrote the critical study “After Mecca”: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (2005), and a volume collecting her poetry and prose was published as The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke, 1980–2005 (2006). Many of Clarke’s most influential essays, including “Lesbianism: an Act of Resistance” and “The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community,” first appeared in landmark publications such as This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981) and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983). Clarke served as editor for Conditions, an influential journal of lesbian feminist literature.All of Clarke’s writings advocate for queer communities of color, paying attention to the social implications of language and labels and the possibilities of art and activism to stage resistance to dominant culture. According to Alexis Pauline Gumbs, who co-organized a conference on Clarke at Rutgers in 2013, “Cheryl Clarke’s life and work offer an enduring rejection of straightness and a constant reorientation to alternative space.”Clarke was an influential administrator and teacher at Rutgers for more than 40 years. She founded the Office of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian-Gay Concerns, which became the Office of Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities, and retired as the Livingstone Dean of Students in 2013. For her service to LGBTQ communities, Clarke received a David Kessler Award. She currently lives in Hobart, New York, where she owns and operates Blenheim Hill Books with her partner, Barbara J. Balliet.

“Long a recorder of the difficult, juicy moment, the questions of difference, Cheryl Clarke gives us acute highlights along a journey travelled with resolve, pain, joy.”—Audre Lorde on Humid Pitch“[Clarke’s] musics are various: strong, or sharp, or quick, or lulling. Rich and requiring.”—Gwendolyn Brooks on Humid Pitch“Cheryl Clarke’s poems take fire from a deep and intelligent caring for other Black women and herself in them.” —Adrienne Rich, on Narratives“Cheryl Clarke’s poetry has always touched that place in me that responds to magic and music.”—Joy Harjo on Humid Pitch“Cheryl Clarke speaks with a direct and unique voice.”—June Jordan on Narratives

• Targets 2019HistoryOn Their Way to LifeTargetsEmergency Surgerydepth in a two dimensional spaceWhat It TakeBrief Interval /Legacy/Legends Nephew 2016lipstick cornWhat Does It Mean?Woman Ends Her Life: ElegyTercetReckless DomesticityLiving as a lesbian in the archive of styleJuanita’ (for D.C.)By My Precise Haircut 2016Mandela: 12-15-2013A Capital Car ChaseWomen of LettersOh, Memory Fatal and FatefulA Sister’s Lament . . .Songs of Longingthe empireA Child DieThe Days of Good Looks: Prose And Poetry 1980-2000 (2005)Living as a lesbian underground, fin de siÈcleBillie HolidayDreams of South Africa
 james dean longingExperimental Love (1993)War Crazy MenGreta Garbo MovementpassingAll Souls’ DayFlowers of Puerto Rico ButtonsAn EpitaphRondeauMake-upRemember the VoyageArroyo QueridaHardLiving as a Lesbian at 45Najeeb (1974-1989)Veronica Ashley Wood, My NieceHanging Tough in the Persian Gulf: Elegyan old woman muses from her basementA Poet’s DeathHumid Pitch (1989)BulletinThe Day Sam Cooke DiedSisters Partparty pants (from Epic of Song)Frances MichaelErolIlona of HickoryNo PlaceLiving As a Lesbian (1986)14th Streetwearing my cap backwardsThe woman who raised meliving as a lesbian on the makejournal entry: sistersfor my mother, 1979palm leaf of Mary MagdaleneI come to the cityfreedom fleshIndirano more encomiumsIntimacy no luxuryVicki and DaphneFall journal entry: 1983nothingsexual preferenceMiami: 1980living as a lesbian underground a futuristic fantasyan exile I have lovedsister of famous artist brotherPueblo Bonitojazz poem for Morristown, N.J.Intimacy no luxurymarimbaKittatinnyliving as a lesbian at 35Narratives: poems in the tradition of black women 1982hair: a narrativeMavis writes in her journalThe Older AmericanFathersApril 4, 1968: Washington, D.C.The moon in cancerGailthe johnny cakeOf Althea and FlaxieNEW POEMSForeword to New PoemsGrade Schooler Scholar Jo’burg, 2016Never Any Proof EntryBack seatJuggernautBetty Carter (1929-1998)The message CostSigns of the Times Sandy BlandSonnet for the Last Night Spring 2022journal entryEmanuel 9 2015: their influence was wideAcknowledgements