Cherríe Moraga Papers, 1970-1996

Summary

Creators:

Moraga, Cherríe

Extent:

44 linear ft.

Language:

English.

Background

Scope and content:

The Cherríe Moraga Papers document the life work of an important lesbian Chicana poet, essayist, and playwright of the 20th century. The papers include Moraga's personal and professional correspondence, journals, collected Feminist and Women of Color serials, drafts, manuscripts and galleys, and final publications of her writings, as well as important essays and reviews of her work.

The papers are divided into 19 series: 1. Publications, 2. Manuscripts, 3. Journals, 4. Correspondence, 5. Gigs, 6. Manuscripts by Others, 7. Publicity, 8. Theater Correspondence, 9. Academic Work, 10. Collector's Publications, 11. Publicity, 12. Electronic Media, 13. Essays and Reviews, 14. Photographs, Posters, and Awards and 15. Oversize

Wherever Moraga's original arrangement of materials was encountered, her order was respected.

Biographical / historical:

Cherríe Moraga, an award-winning playwright, poet and essayist, has received national recognition for her creative and critical writings focussing on racism and classism within the white women's movement, issues of sexuality, lesbianism and cultural and racial identity, as well as homophobia and sexism within Chicano culture. Moraga's involvements as a teacher, gay and lesbian youth advocate, editor, activist and cultural critic have served as a catalyst for her work.

Moraga is perhaps most widely known for the highly-acclaimed anthology, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, which she co-edited with Gloria Anzaldúa and Loving in the War Years / Lo Que Nunca Pasó Por Sus Labios, a collection of poetry and essays. Her theater productions include "Giving Up the Ghost," "Shadow of a Man," "Heroes and Saints," and "Watsonville : Some Place Not Here." She has most recently written Waiting in the wings : a portrait of a queer motherhood (Firebrand Books, 1997).

Born in Whittier, California in 1952, Moraga attended Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, from which she graduated in 1974. Following college she worked for three years as an English teacher in Burbank, California. In 1977 she moved to San Francisco where she attended graduate school in Feminist Studies at San Francisco State University. There, she met Barbara Smith, with whom she was to found the important publishing house Kitchen Table : Women of Color Press in New York in 1981.The Press became a critical voice for feminism from Black, Latina, and Third World perspectives. She has served as an instructor in Women's Studies and Chicano Studies and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Moraga received a Theatre Communications Group theatre artist residency grant in 1996, the NEA's Theatre Playwrights' Fellowship in 1993 and two Fund for New American Plays Awards from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She was awarded the Outlook Foundation Literary Award in 1991, The American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1986, and a New York State Creative Arts Public Service Program Grant for Poetry.

Cherríe Moraga lives and works in San Francisco.

Date	Event
1952 September 25	Cher'rie Moraga Lawrence is born in Whittier, California, to Elvira Moraga and Joseph Lawrence.
1970-1974	College at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, graduated in 1974.
1980	Received Master of Arts degree in Feminist Studies at California State University, San Francisco
1981	Cofounds, with Barbara Smith, Kitchen Table : Women of Color Press
1981	Publishes This Bridge Called My Back : Writings by Radical Women of Color
1982	MacDowell Arts Colony fellow, New Hampshire
1983	Wins New York State Community Artist Program award.
1983	Loving in the War Years / Lo Que Nunca Pasó Por Sus Labios published
1983	Cuentos : stories by Latinas is published, edited by Alma Gomez, Cherríe Moraga, and Maríana Romo-Carmona.
1984	Selected as Playwright-in-residence at the Hispanic Playwrights Lab at the INTAR (International Arts Relation) Theater, New York under María Irene Fornes.
1986	Awarded Before Columbus American Book Award for This Bridge Called My Back
1986	Giving Up the Ghost is published
1986-1991	Lecturer of writing and theater in Chicano Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
1988	Esta Puente Mi Espalda (Spanish adaptation of This Bridge Called My Back) is published
1989	Co-edits, with Norma Alarcón and Ana Castillo, Third Woman : The Sexuality of Latinas
1989 Feb. 10	Giving Up the Ghost premiere at Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco
1989 April	Shadow of a Man produced as part of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre's Plays-in-Progress series
1990	Publishes with Fornes Shadow of a Man. Produced at the Eureka Theatre, San Francisco, a co-production with Brava! For Women in the Arts.
1990	Opening of Coatlique's Call, a collaboration with visual artist Guadalupe Garcia
1991	Wins Fund for New American Plays award, A Project of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
1992	Heroes & Saints was commissioned by Los Angeles Theatre Center;
1992 Apr. 4	Heroes & Saints premieres at Mission Theater, San Francisco,produced by Brava! For Women in the Arts, directed by Albert Takazauckas
1993	Awarded National Endowment for the Arts' Theater Playwrights Fellowship
1993	The Last Generation published
1994	Heroes & Saints and Other Plays published.
1997	Waiting in the wings : a portrait of a queer motherhood published

Location of this collection:

Stanford University, Manuscripts Division

Department of Special Collections, Green Library

557 Escondido Mall

Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US

Contact:

(650) 725-1022

specialcollections@stanford.edu

Website