2022-23 Hess Scholar-in-Residence
Barbara Smith. Photo credit:聽Joanna Chattman.
Barbara Smith is an author, activist, and independent scholar who has played a groundbreaking role in opening up a national cultural and political dialogue about the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender. She was among the first to define an African American women鈥檚 literary tradition and to build Black women鈥檚 studies and Black feminism in the United States. She has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s.
She has edited three major collections about Black women: Conditions: Five, The Black Women鈥檚 Issue (with Lorraine Bethel, 1979); All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women鈥檚 Studies (with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell Scott, 1982); and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, 1983. She is also the co-author with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism, 1984. She is the general editor of The Reader鈥檚 Companion to U. S. Women鈥檚 History with Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Gloria Steinem, 1998. A collection of her essays, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom was published by Rutgers University Press in 1998. Ain鈥檛 Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith was published by SUNY Press in November, 2014.
She was cofounder and publisher until 1995 of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color. She resides in Albany, New York and served two terms as a member of the Albany Common Council from 2006 to 2013. From 2014 to 2017 she served as the Special Community Projects Coordinator for the City of Albany helping to implement the Equity Agenda.
Awards
2019鈥擠octor of Humane Letters, Honorary degree awarded by Mount Holyoke College
2017鈥擜frican American Policy Forum Harriet Tubman Lifetime Achievement Award
2015鈥擠octor of Letters, Honorary degree awarded by the University at Albany
2015鈥擫ambda Literary Award for Ain鈥檛 Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
2015鈥擯ublishing Triangle Award for Ain鈥檛 Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
2015鈥擶omen of Excellence Award for Distinguished Career, Women鈥檚 Business Council, Capital Region Chamber of Commerce
2015鈥擫iterary Legends Award, Albany Public Library Foundation
2012鈥斺�淢akers: Women Who Make America鈥� AOL鈥擯BS
2010鈥�Capitaland Quarterly Dozen Who Make a Difference
2009鈥擜lumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College Achievement Award
2005鈥擭obel Peace Prize Nominee
2000鈥擟hurch Women United Human Rights Award
2000鈥�Essence Magazine, Profiled in lead feature article honoring Black women leaders for the special thirtieth anniversary issue
1999鈥擜lbany Chapter National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Arts Award.
1998鈥�The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom, Honorable Mention, Gustavus Myers Human Rights Book Award
1996鈥�1997鈥擣ellow, Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College.
1995鈥�1996鈥擲cholar-in-Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
1987鈥擬ount Holyoke College Alumnae Association Sesquicentennial Award