Clarke is the author of five collections of poetry:
Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (originally self-published in 1981 and distributed by
Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1982); for
Firebrand Books,
Living as a Lesbian (1986),
Humid Pitch (1989), and
Experimental Love (1993); and for
Word Works,
By My Precise Haircut (2016). She also published
After Mecca — Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (Rutgers University Press, 2005), and
Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980–2005 (Carroll & Graf Publishing, 2006), a collection that represented 25 years of published writing. Clarke served on the editorial collective of
Conditions, an early lesbian publication, and has been published in numerous anthologies, journals, magazines, and newspapers, including
Conditions,
This Bridge Called My Back,
Home Girls,
The Black Scholar,
The Kenyon Review,
Belles Lettres, and
Gay Community News. Clarke's articles, "Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance" and "The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community", published in
This Bridge Called My Back and
Home Girls, respectively, are often included in
women's studies,
Black studies, and
English studies curricula.
"Lesbianism: an Act of Resistance" (1981) Cheryl Clarke is the author of "Lesbianism: an Act of Resistance", originally published in 1981 in the feminist anthology
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Thinking of "lesbian" as a continuum, she makes space for women who have sexual and emotional relationships with women but identify with other labels. In the same way, she redefines lesbianism "as an ideological, political, and philosophical means of liberation of all women from heterosexual tyranny." Additionally, Clarke asserts that intellectual Black women have excluded Black lesbians from their scholarship and subtly deny the womanhood of Black lesbians—"homophobia by omission". The oppression and exclusion of Black lesbian women from the Black liberation movement, according to Clarke, is counter-revolutionary and only by addressing and eliminating homophobia can the Black community find liberation. Clarke concludes that Black people must be committed to eliminating homophobia in the community by engaging in discussion with advocates for gay and lesbian liberation, getting educated about gay and lesbian politics, confronting internal and external homophobic attitudes, and understanding how these attitudes prevent total liberation.
The Black Arts Movement The
Black Arts Movement took place between 1965 and 1975, in close connection with the
Black power movement, and sought to reimagine Western politics and cultural aesthetics. Emerging from this movement was also the inclusion of women as well as queer artists, partially a result of critiques of the movement and prominent figures, including Clarke, highlighting the artistic contributions of these groups. In her work
After Mecca, Clarke showcases women poets and writers and put queer characters at the center of her revolutionary fiction stories. but with more engagement with queer Black womanhood. ==Community==