Identity Poetics: Race, Class, and the Lesbian-Feminist Roots of Queer Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
Identity Poetics traces the connections between lesbian feminism and queer theory, rejecting the either/or choice that promotes factionalism and obscures vital elements of lesbian history and activism. The connections between the two movements are illustrated primarily through the pivotal writings of working-class/lesbians of color whose articulations of multiple, simultaneous identity positions and activist politics both belong to lesbian feminism and presage queer theory. Identity Poetics includes a critical overview of recent historical writing about the women’s and lesbian-feminist movements of the 1970s; discussion of the works of activist-poet-theorists Judy Grahn, Pat Parker, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Anzaldúa; and a final chapter on the rise of queer theory within LGBTQ studies.
