February 8,2012_____________________
Thepo r t [anc) O b s e rv e r B l a c k H iS t O iy M o n t h
A Voice beyond Category
c o n t i n u e d f r o m front
she said millions of black women
define Black Feminism as being
about expression and sharing reali
ties to create a broader picture.
“Oppression looks different to
everyone. Activism looks different
to everyone. We all have to find our
way in the world, but there are ways
as a collective where elements of
our experience are similar,” she said.
Autry looks at Black Feminism
to inspire and get other women to
share their stories to remind each
other of the multi-faceted struggles
and issues affecting equity within
our country.
As a movement, which emerged
in the belief that we are all aspects of
ourselves simultaneously, Black
Feminism is inherently about hav
ing a wider awareness of how all
oppression is interconnected.
“We all have multiple identities
that we navigate,” she said.
First coined by writer Alice
W alker, the difference between
Black Feminism and Wom anism .
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ironiothci feminist a im s , is the rec-
ognition that diflcicnt women hav e
women of color, she said.
While feminism was a strong force
for change, it was a movement that
spoke to a certain constituency of
women, and it wasn’ t inclusive to all
things relevant to black women.
“Historically, it was a movement
of women who wanted to work and
have equal access to job opportuni-
ties, be able to provide their own
incomes and be on par with white
men in society and their environ-
ments.”
She said, however. Black women,
women of color and poor white
women have always been working,
so having access to work was not
the big push.
"When we look at issues facing
Black women we have to look at not
only race, not only gender, not only
sexuality and class, but how all those
things play out together,” she said,
Black Feminism is looking at the
whole person and experience, and it
is not an either or situation.
“You don’t get to chose to be
black one day, and a woman the
next. We are all aspects of ourselves,
simultaneously.”
Autry explained Black Feminism
photo by M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver
Tu rjy a
/\utry keeps her creative expressions in tune by keeping her
journal close. The local art educator and poet is on a mission to
encourage everyone to look more critically and lovingly upon the
world around them.
is rooted in the arrival of African
Americans to the country during
the Diaspora,
“From that moment we were faced
with the reality that our race, gender
and class were being determined by
institutions outside of ourselves,”
she said. “So everything we had to
do to survive and live within those
circumstances speaks to the birth
and beginnings of Black Feminism.”
People see the Civil Rights move-
ment as the beginning of a struggle,
but actually women and black
people in general, have been in
volved in that movement through-
out slavery and up until the present,
Autry said.
“There were often times we would
have preferred to be at home and
educate our children to give them
more of an education that would help
them navigate the world,” she said,
“So much of our survival has been
women passing those lessons onto
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our children and our communities.”
She traces the modem civil rights
movement to the resistance black
women had to slavery and their ac-
tivism for building schools and or-
ganizing around issues.
She said this analysis of power,
privilege and oppression, as well as
a study of black women’s contribu-
tion to time and struggle against
those dynamics, has been a strong
underlying element to both her work,
as well as to her personal perspec-
tive of self.
“My work as an artist, and my
engagement with black feminism, is
about engaging with my identity
and the world, and how my identity
interacts with the world interacting
with me.”
Art, she said, becomes part of the
resistance against these injustices,
“People are limited by space and
geography to certain neighborhood
and economics, but one way to claim
that space is by adorning the walls
with what you want to see.”
L ike A u try , b lack w om en
throughout history have also had a
strong hand in using the arts and
music as a means of social change.
“Black women were the first re-
cording blues artists and traveling
around the world and the country,”
she said. “In hip hop, black women
were part of the founding of that
too.”
As a lyricist and poet, Autry said
she sees the value in words and
voice beyond the categories of dif-
ference, which is why she has dedi-
cated much of her life to teaching
youth to em pow er them selves
through creative expression,
“I feel like young people carry it
and they need more opportunities
to find and exercise their voices for
positive social change,” she said,
“It is important for us to share it, and
it is part of what nourishes us.”
The vast majority of people are
impacted by oppression, she said,
so eliminating one form of oppres-
sion is not enough. “If racism hypo-
thetically ends tom orrow , that
wouldn't guarantee sexism would,”
she said. “It is really about having a
wider awareness of how all these
oppression are linked to uphold the
power structure in the U.S., as well
as in various places throughout the
world.”
After nearly a decade of working
with youth, she is excited to con-
tinue her mission as the Education
Director of Caldera, which is a non-
profit that empowers kids to share
their perspectives through art, which
Autry believes, is a pow erful
weapon for change.
My work with youth around the
arts is part of my offering in helping
others reach and explore their po-
tential, she said. “Everyone has had
some moment when there has been
a song, a painting or a book that has
helped them see things differently.
That is the power of art, whether or
not we see ourselves as creative or
artists.”
C e le b ra te
Jr
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