Esperanza Malavé Cintrón, Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés and Druis Beaseley founded the Sisters of Color Writing Collective in 1988 while working on graduate degrees in Albany, NY. The trio came came together after being introduced by Toni Morrison, then Schweizer Chair at the State University of New York at Albany. Their writing workshop blossomed into an activist group: as membership grew, the women gave readings, facilitated racism workshops, and taught poetry in correctional facilities. One of their outreach efforts was the literary magazine SEEDS which is now digitized. To see each issue, click here.
Sisters of Color (SOC) welcomed women of all color. I, a Scandinavian-Slavic American, was invited to join the group after I had been in a study group with Esperanza Malavé Cintrón and Druis Beasley. I served as Poetry Editor of the first issue of SEEDS. Decades later when I founded the press Stockport Flats, I was able to publish Druis Beasley’s work in the High Watermark Salo[o]n Volume 1, Number 4 and the anthology Women Outside. Lillen Waller edited and contributed to the anthology American Ghost: Poets on Life After Industry for Stockport Flats. Esperanza Malavé Cintrón’s Visions of a Post-Apocalyptic Sunrise: Detroit Poems was part of Stockport Flats’ Confluence Series.
Here’s a list of contributors from SEEDS: The Biannual Literary Journal of the Sisters of Color, volumes 1, 2 and 3. The two issues featured work by members of SOC and writers in the community (Capital District of New York State). By the time the third issue was released, Editor Esperanza Malavé Cintrón had move back to your hometown of Detroit and founded a chapter of Sisters of Color Writing Collective there. So, Volume 3 is a wonderful conversation between creative women in Detroit and Albany.
1991. Managing Editor Esperanza Malavé Cintrón worked with Poetry Editor Lori Anderson [Moseman] and Editorial Assistants Curtis Bliss and Wilma Kahn to produce the premiere issue of SEEDS: The Biannual Literary Journal of the Sisters of Color. Contributors included, Druis Beasley, Linda Boulette, Tawana Brace-Knowles, Esperanza Malavé Esperanza Malavé Cintrón, Mary A. Etienne, Laurie Filippi, Lois Jircitano, Wilma Kahn, Roz Lee, Shaarazetta Natelege, Lillien Waller , Rayfield Allen Waller, and Winifred Yu. Cover Art is by Joanne Beckman.
1992. Managing Editor Esperanza Malavé Cintrón worked with Poetry Editor Roz Lee and Editorial Assistants Stacey Dawes and Lillien Waller to produce Volume 2 of SEEDS: The Biannual Literary Journal of the Sisters of Color. Contributors included Druis Beasley, Linda Boulette, Esperanza Malavé Cintrón, Stacey Dawes, Linda Silance Dixon, Mary A. Etienne, Wilma Kahn, Roz Lee, Percival Miller, Lori Anderson [Moseman], Emily Novak, Cecilia Rodríguez Milané, Mary Panza, Marilyn Omifunke Torres, Lillien Waller, Rayfield Allen Waller, Katie Yates and Winifred Yu. Cover Art is by Joanne Beckman.
1995. Managing Editor Esperanza Malavé Cintrón worked Editorial Assistants Wilma Kahn and Vievee Francis to produce Volume 3 of SEEDS: The Biannual Literary Journal of the Sisters of Color. This issue had poems from a performance the Sisters of Color Writing Collective produced. Writers/performers for Extensions: Women and Their Hair were Druis Beasley, Stacey Dawes, Nadia Lawson, Cherry B. McCutchen, Tanya Manning [Yarde] and Lori Anderson [Moseman]. Other contributors included Sarah Addae, Ventra Asana, Carmen Bugan, Mashana Burton, Esperanza Malavé Cintrón, Perri Giovannucci, jil hanifan, Aurora Harris, Kaleema Hasan, Lolita Hernandez, Wilma Kahn, Leslie Reese, Teresa Tan, and Rayfield Allen Waller.