---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 15:50:55 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: OUTLAW WOMAN -- book release
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 16:12:03 -0800
From: rdunbaro@pacbell.net
Subject: OUTLAW WOMAN
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS
OUTLAW WOMAN: A MEMOIR OF THE WAR YEARS, 1960-1975
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Available from City Lights Books, February 2002
ISBN: 0-87286-390-5
Trade paperback original, 340pp
$17.95
Pre-order directly from City Lights Books at
http://www.citylights.com/CLorder.html
or at your favorite independent bookstore.
FROM THE PUBLISHER, CITY LIGHTS BOOKS, SAN FRANCISCO:
In 1968, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz became a founder of the early women's
liberation movement. Along with a small group of dedicated women, she
produced the seminal journal series, NO MORE FUN AND GAMES.
Dunbar-Ortiz was also a dedicated anti-war activist and organizer
throughout the 1960s and 1970s. During the war years she was a fiery,
indefatigable
public speaker on issues of patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, and racism.
She worked in Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade and formed associations
with other revolutionaries across the spectrum of radical and underground
politics, including the
SDS, the Weather Underground, the Revolutionary Union, and the African National
Congress.
But unlike the majority of those in the New Left, Dunbar-Ortiz grew up
poor, female, and part-Indian in rural Oklahoma, and she often found herself
at odds not only with the ruling class but also with the Left and with the
women's movement.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a historian and professor in Ethnic Studies and
Women's Studies at California State University, Hayward. She is the author of a
previous memoir, RED DIRT: GROWING UP OKIE (Verso), and also THE GREAT SIOUX
NATION and ROOTS OF RESISTANCE, among other scholarly publications.
ADVANCE COMMENTS ON OUTLAW WOMAN
"I stand in awe of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. She is a survivor, capital
"S". She was there in the middle of it all. Now I understand what was going
on with
the movement outside of Indian country during those amazing years. The
movement press was a lifeline to us in the American Indian Movement so we knew
what was going on, but from a distance. Now OutLaw Women is showing it to us
through the eyes of someone who lived it."
-Madonna Gilbert Thunder Hawk, Lakota activist from the Cheyenne River
Sioux reservation, and American Indian Movement (AIM) leader at Alcatraz and
Wounded Knee
"Official history is told by the conquerors and those in power. That
has changed; women and men who have fought the dominant powers challenged
the official version, seized control of their voices and opened the
collective eye to the prism that history is. Roxanne Dunbar's second
memoir is such a
challenge.
She tells the story of her growth as a woman whose heritage and history
had been hidden, cut off. She speaks honestly about conflicts and
uncertainties
as she moves forward through the 1960s. She explains her growth and becoming
as a woman of conscience and political action through the lens of the
unofficial
history of those who struggled. This book contributes to the dynamic of
people's
history from a woman's point of view."
-Marilyn Buck, poet, feminist, and political prisoner
"What I like about Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's memoir writings is that she
places herself in an historical context. When you read about her life, you
also learn history from the perspective of someone who comes from the poor
and has
fought for the poor. In sharing honestly her mistakes, Roxanne teaches us not
to be afraid of contradictions. For anyone who believes the future of humanity
necessitates ending corporate greed and power, this book is a must."
-Pamela Chude Allen, founder of Radical Women, author of "Free Space"
"Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's OUTLAW WOMAN is a memoir of an extraordinary
time in U.S. history, and it is one that doesn't get bogged down in accusation,
scandal, or idealistic reverie. The roots of contemporary feminism are
here. The
United States war in Vietnam is here. Native American and African American
struggles are here. And other struggles that shaped generations of U.S.
revolutionaries--Cuba, South Africa, Chile, Nicaragua. Roxanne's journey
through some of the
era's most important movements and events allows us to revisit those
times--whatever our own position, then or now. OUTLAW WOMAN is stark,
unrelenting, honest, and
evocative--of a time when a diverse subculture cared, a time that should
make us proud."
-Margaret Randall, poet and memorist
"It's impossible to finish reading this compelling memoir and not think,
'What a totally amazing person!' The book traces the complex, ever-deepening
evolution of one feminist determined to help create a better society. But
it is
also about an entire historical era when people were struggling for social
justice
around the world and very much so in the U.S. Against such a background, we
see this woman become a movement leader, unique in her lower workingclass,
"Okie"
origin, fighting injustice with a powerful mind and spirit."
-Elizabeth (Betita) Martnez, Chicana activist and author
"Outlaw Woman is the story, bold and honest, of Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz'
extraordinary journey--political, ideological, personal--through the
Sixties and early Seventies. Coming from a working class upbringing in
Oklahoma,
she moved in and out of every important feminist and revolutionary movement of
that remarkable time in American history. She illuminates all those
experiences with unsparing scrutiny and emerges with a fierce, admirable
independence."
-Howard Zinn, author of "Peoples History of the United States"
"This is a wonderfully evocative account of a remarkable life: harrowing
and joyful, searching and achieving, a life that brings together threads of
a complex, troubled, and rewarding era, a life that really made a
difference to moving towards a more humane and just world."
-Noam Chomsky
"Dunbar-Ortiz takes us into the heart of the women's liberation
movement, grassroots anti-war organizing and solidarity work with third world
liberation struggles around the world and in the U.S. Outlaw Woman is a
fierce and
honest narrative about organizing, resistance, and a passion to remake the
world."
^Chris Crass, Food Not Bombs
"Roxanne Dunbar gives the lie to the myth that all New Left activists of
the '60s and '70s were spoiled children of the suburban middle classes.
Read this
book to find out what are the roots of radicalism."
^Mark Rudd, SDS, Columbia University strike leader
"The best of autobiographical works are those that convey, in the telling
of one
life story, larger truths than those we experience as individuals. To
accomplish this feat with seeming effortlessness, as Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
has done
with Red Dirt, is to create not only a valuable historical record, but a
literary
work that is a pleasure to read. Employing the finest storytelling skills,
Dunbar-Ortiz lovingly recollects her youth in Oklahoma and the family
dynamics she experienced "growing up Okie" during the mid-20th-century. In the
process, she touches upon a host of social issues--among them racism,
sexism, and
economic disparity--that have plagued the U.S. since its earliest days. Perhaps
most importantly, she offers one resounding voice from among a vast
population--namely, the white underclass--that consistently has been
underrepresented in historical texts, and misrepresented in popular
culture.
Exploding the notion of "poor white trash, Dunbar-Ortiz offers
three-dimensional alternative as she reconstructs through her personal
memoir the history
and struggles of the frontier settler class and its descendants. As we move
into the next century, Red Dirt is a text of vital significance to our
collective
humanity."
-Angela Y. Davis, teacher, activist, author, University of California,
Santa Cruz
about RED DIRT: GROWING UP OKIE
See: www.reddirtsite.com for more information about RED DIRT.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Jan 24 2002 - 19:47:44 EST