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By Jennifer Chu
 The Voorhees Chapel on Douglass campus was filled with
hundreds of poetry fans on the evening of October 4th.
Rutgers was proud to host a poetry reading featuring
Cheryl Clarke, Alicia Ostriker, and Adrienne Rich, in
celebration of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the first
Women’s and Gender Studies courses at Rutgers.
The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies offers
an interdisciplinary graduate program and an undergraduate
major and minor, with courses taught by affiliate faculty
from a wide range of the social sciences and humanities,
including seventeen professors from Rutgers English.
The night started with a reading by Cheryl Clarke.
Although she is best known on campus as the Director
of Diverse Community Affairs and LBGT Concerns, Ms.
Clarke is also recognized as a powerful poet and essayist
whose work is inspired by the civil rights, women’s,
and gay and lesbian liberation movements. She was followed
by Rutgers English professor Alicia Ostriker. Professor
Ostriker read sections from her most recent book of
poems, The Volcano Sequence, and from her forthcoming
book No Heaven.
Professor Carol H. Smith then introduced Ms. Rich as
a “feminist hero,” and recalled that she
came to Douglass as an English professor in 1976, when
the women’s movement was at its strongest. Her
poetry, said Professor Smith, has always challenged
readers to reconsider the social definitions of womanhood.
Ms. Rich has been considered a significant poet since
1951, when her first published book, A Change of
World, was chosen by W.H. Auden for the prestigious
Yale Younger Poets Award.
Since then, she has used her poetry and essays as a
voice against the limitations and stereotypes of women,
from her early work describing the frustrations of being
seen only as a wife in Snapshots of a Daughter-In-Law
(1963), to her most recent collection of political poems,
The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000-2004.
Critic Martha Nell Smith has called her “America’s
most widely read lesbian poet,” and she has been
an outspoken advocate of lesbian and gay acceptance
for many decades.
Ms. Rich has published more than twenty books of poetry
and essays. She has received numerous awards and fellowships,
including two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the National
Book Award in 1974 for her collection of poems Diving
into the Wreck. After leaving Douglass College,
Ms. Rich continued to teach at other schools, including
Cornell University and Stanford University.
For the celebratory reading at Voorhees Chapel, Ms.
Rich began by saying, “I’m so moved to have
been invited back.” She selected poems from throughout
her career, including the poem that inspired the title
of her latest book, “The School Among the
Ruins.” Although her book confronts themes
of war and social dystopia, she also continues to encourage
her audience not to give up hope.
The reading closed with great applause and appreciation,
but the celebration continued into the night at the
Mabel Smith Douglass Library, where the Women’s
and Gender Studies Department had created a display
of book covers, newspaper clippings, reviews, and pictures
to honor the careers of the three poets. Rutgers English
congratulates the Women’s and Gender Studies Department
on its anniversary, and was a proud co-sponsor in inviting
these important poets to share their works.
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