After braving a blizzard and searching out a new venue, Penn students opted to sit on the floor, on tables or wherever they could find a spot to listen to Rebecca Walker.
On Thursday night, the best-selling author and renowned feminist gave the Women’s Week 2010 keynote address in the packed rooftop lounge of Harnwell College House.
Presented by the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women, Civic House Associates Coalition, Lambda Alliance, PRISM, Penn Women’s Center and UMOJA, the event was part of Women’s Week 2010, themed “What does a feminist look like?”
Walker discussed a myriad of issues ranging from feminism to political activism, as well as her often controversial work as an author.
“I live the answers to all of these questions,” Walker said to an audience that listened intently to and at times erupted in laughter at her candid expressions.
A writer of memoirs, Walker has authored best-selling books such as Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self and edited One Big Happy Family, along with others. Her books explore motherhood, the dynamics of modern families, feminism and her experiences growing up as a multiracial woman in the midst of the Civil Rights movement.
Through her writing, Walker claimed she just wants “to be free.”
Despite the face that her writing has inflamed and alienated some while drawing admiration from others, she said, “I have no regrets.”
She is the daughter of Alice Walker, renowned writer of The Color Purple and Jewish civil rights attorney Mel Leventhal.
Walker began her talk by thanking each group that collaborated to organize Women’s Week 2010. Later, she reminded student activists that they worked “to transform consciousness.” Walker encouraged students to think about what it means to be an activist and to recognize and make peace with the price to pay for what activism entails.
On the subject of feminism, Walker said she considered “feminist acts” to be those which benefit women and their families.
She discussed her reasons for writing memoirs — detailed memoirs that have stirred controversy and led to being disowned by her famous mother — instead of fiction. Walker also stressed the importance of knowing the reasons for one’s actions and beliefs — a message that CHAC’s co-chair College junior Nicole Dillard said is very relevant to students of all races.
“She’s reclaiming this intellectual space previously dominated by men and using language as a form of discourse to define herself,” said College sophomore Isamar Ramirez, a Gender, Culture and Society major.
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