This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| This Bridge Called My Back | |
|---|---|
| Name | This Bridge Called My Back |
| Caption | First edition cover |
| Editors | Cherríe Moraga; Gloria E. Anzaldúa |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English; Spanish; bilingual editions |
| Subject | Feminism; race; intersectionality; activism |
| Genre | Essay anthology; anthology |
| Publisher | Persephone Press; Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press |
| Pub date | 1981; 1983; subsequent editions |
| Pages | 320 (varies by edition) |
| Isbn | 0-943270-xx-x |
This Bridge Called My Back
This Bridge Called My Back is a landmark anthology of writings, poems, and visual art by women of color that reshaped contemporary discussions of feminism, race, and identity. Edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, the collection brought together Indigenous, Latina/o, Asian American, African American, and multiracial voices and connected grassroots activism to literary expression. Its publication influenced feminist theory, queer studies, ethnic studies, and social movements across the United States and internationally.
The anthology emerged from networks among activists and intellectuals including Cherríe Moraga, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, June Jordan, Adrienne Rich, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Susan Sontag, Simone de Beauvoir, and transnational feminists such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Edward Said, and Indigenous scholars connected to movements like the American Indian Movement. The editors framed the book within activism tied to organizations and events like Combahee River Collective, National Organization for Women, Students for a Democratic Society, Third World Women's Alliance, Civil Rights Movement, and the Chicano Movement. Contributions drew from local collectives, university programs such as San Francisco State University, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and community presses including Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
First published in 1981 by Persephone Press, the anthology went out of print and was reissued in 1983 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press—a collective founded by figures like Barbara Smith and Beverly Smith. Subsequent editions appeared in the 1990s and 2000s from university and independent presses, including editions with new forewords by critics such as Gloria Anzaldúa and scholars like Cherríe Moraga, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Ellen Quinn, Lisa Jardine, and editors from Routledge and Duke University Press. The book circulated widely in courses at institutions like Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, New York University, and University of California, Los Angeles, influencing curricula in programs such as Women's Studies, Ethnic Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Latina/o Studies, and Asian American Studies.
Contributors addressed themes including intersectionality—developed later in scholarship by Kimberlé Crenshaw—as well as identity, sexuality, colonialism, and labor in dialogues that referenced theorists and movements like Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paulo Freire, Angela Davis, and events such as the Stonewall riots. Essays and poems engaged with histories and locales including Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Mexico City, Guatemala City, Manila, and diasporic links to regions like Southeast Asia, Caribbean, and Mesoamerica. The anthology included creative work and manifestos by writers and artists often associated with collectives such as Women of All Red Nations, Third World Liberation Front, and cultural spaces like Movimiento Artístico Chicano and galleries connected to the Chicano Art Movement.
The book provoked wide critical discussion across reviews in outlets like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Ms., and academic journals including Signs (journal), Feminist Studies, and Meridians. Advocates such as Audre Lorde and critics like Sonia Nieto praised its candid depictions, while some mainstream feminist organizations including National Organization for Women and conservative commentators engaged in debate over its politics. The anthology influenced courses, conferences, and symposia hosted by institutions such as Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Smith College, Barnard College, Spelman College, and national gatherings like the National Women's Studies Association conference.
This Bridge Called My Back helped shape scholarly and activist frameworks that later included intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw, queer of color critique by Elizabeth Freeman and Julian Carter, and decolonial thought by Walter Mignolo and Nelson Maldonado-Torres. It informed literary canons alongside works by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Gloria Naylor, Sandra Cisneros, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, and influenced cultural programs at museums like the Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and archives such as the Schlesinger Library and Bunting Institute.
The anthology spawned multiple reprints, bilingual editions, and classroom anthologies adapted for syllabi at universities including University of Texas at Austin, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Washington, and City College of New York. Its material was anthologized in broader compilations alongside authors appearing in collections by Oxford University Press, Routledge, Duke University Press, and Beacon Press. Performative and multimedia adaptations drew on theater groups and festivals such as La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Fringe Festival, and collaborations with artists affiliated with Women Make Movies and community radio like KPFA.
Category:Feminist books Category:Anthologies Category:1981 books