[sixties-l] OUTLAW WOMAN -- book release (fwd)

From: sixties@lists.village.virginia.edu
Date: Thu Jan 24 2002 - 19:15:50 EST

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    ---------- 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.



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