Rebecca Walker (born Rebecca Leventhal; November 17, 1969) is an American writer, feminist, and activist. Walker has been regarded as one of the prominent voices of Third Wave Feminism, and the coiner of the term "third wave", since publishing a 1992 article on feminism in Ms. magazine called "Becoming the Third Wave", in which she proclaimed: "I am the Third Wave."
Walker's writing, teaching, and speeches focus on race, gender, politics, power, and culture.
Walker does extensive writing and speaking about gender, racial, economic, and social justice at universities around the United States and internationally.
In 1994, Time named Walker as one of the 50 future leaders of America.
Early life
Born Rebecca Leventhal in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, she is the daughter of
Alice Walker, an African-American writer whose work includes
The Color Purple, and Melvyn R. Leventhal, a
Jewish American civil rights lawyer. Her parents married in New York before going to Mississippi to work in civil rights.
After her parents divorced in 1976, Walker spent her childhood alternating every two years between her father's home in the largely Jewish Riverdale section of
the Bronx in New York City and her mother's largely African-American environment in San Francisco. Walker attended The Urban School of San Francisco.
When she was 15, she decided to change her surname from Leventhal to Walker, her mother's surname.
Activism
The Third Wave Fund
After graduating from
Yale University, she and Shannon Liss (now Shannon Liss-Riordan) co-founded the Third Wave Fund, a non-profit organization aimed at encouraging young women to get involved in activism and leadership roles.
The organization's initial mission, based on Walker's article, was to "fill a void in young women's leadership and to mobilize young people to become more involved socially and politically in their communities."
[ History , Third Wave Foundation. Retrieved May 7, 2012.] In its first year, the organization initiated a campaign that registered more than 20,000 new voters across the United States. The organization now provides grants to individuals and projects that support young women. The fund was adapted as The Third Wave Foundation in 1997 and continues to support young activists. In the wake of the November 2016 presidential election in the United States, the organization received more than four times the normal number of requests for emergency grants.
Teaching
Walker views teaching as a way to give people the strength to speak the truth, to change perspectives, and to empower people with the ability to change the world.
She lectures on writing memoirs, multi-generational feminism, diversity in the media, multi-racial identity, contemporary visual arts and emerging cultures.
Speaking
Walker concentrates on speaking about multicultural identity (including her own), enlightened masculinity, and inter-generational and third-wave feminism at high schools, universities and conferences around the world. She has spoken at Harvard, Exeter, Head Royce,
Oberlin College,
Smith College, MIT, Xavier, Stanford,
and Louisiana State University.
She has also addressed organizations and corporations such as The National Council of Teachers of English, the Walker Art Center, the American Association of University Women, the National Women's Studies Association, Out and Equal, the National Organization for Women, and Hewitt Associates. In the United States, she has been featured on various popular media outlets such as
Good Morning America,
The Oprah Winfrey Show, and
Charlie Rose.
Books and writing
Major works
Walker's first major work was the book
To be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (1996), which consisted of articles that she compiled and edited. The book reevaluated the feminist movement of the time. Reviewer Emilie Fale, an Assistant Professor of Communication at
Ithaca College, described it: "The twenty-three contributors in
To Be Real offer varied perspectives and experiences that challenge our stereotypes of feminist beliefs as they negotiate the troubled waters of
, identity politics and "
power feminism".
As a collection of "personal testimonies", this work shows how third-wave activists use personal narratives to describe their experiences with social and gender injustice.
Contributors include feminist writers such as
bell hooks and
Naomi Wolf. According to Walker's website, this book has been taught in Gender Studies programs around the world.
In her memoir Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self (2000), Walker explores her early years in Mississippi as the child of parents who were active in the later years of the Civil Rights Movement. She also touches on living with two parents with very active careers, which she believes led to their separation. She discusses encountering racial prejudice and the difficulties of being mixed-race in a society with rigid cultural barriers. She also discusses developing her sexuality and identity as a bisexual woman.
Her 2007 memoir Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After A Lifetime of Ambivalence explores her life with a stepson and biological son against a framework of feminism. Walker was criticized for her stigmatizing views on biological parenthood being superior to adoptive parenthood and adoptive parents boycotted her work.
Walker was a contributing editor to Ms. magazine for many years. Her writing has been published in a range of magazines, such as Harper's, Essence, Glamour, Interview, Buddhadharma, Vibe, Child, and Mademoiselle magazines. She has appeared on CNN and MTV, and has been covered in The New York Times, Chicago Times, Esquire, Shambhala Sun, among other publications. Walker has taught workshops on writing at international conferences and MFA programs. She also works as a private publishing consultant.
Her first novel, , was published in 2013. It features a biracial college student, Farida, who falls in love with Adé, a black Kenyan man. The couple's plan to marry is interrupted when Farida gets malaria and the two must struggle through a civil war in Kenya. The novel was generally well received by critics and laypeople alike.
Personal life
Walker identifies as
bisexual. She dated neo-soul musician Meshell Ndegeocello, whose son she helped raise even after their relationship ended.
She has been married to writer Rachel M. Harper since 2012.
Once estranged from her mother Alice Walker, she has reconciled with her, and the two have since appeared at literary events together.
Bibliography
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To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (1996) (editor)
-
(2000)
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What Makes A Man: 22 Writers Imagine The Future (2004) (editor)
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Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence (2007)
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One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love (2009) (editor)
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Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness (Soft Skull Press, February 2012) (editor)
[Staff (December 12, 2011). "Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness. Edited by Rebecca Walker" , Publishers Weekly.]
-
(2013), (novel)
Film
In the 1998 film
Primary Colors, a
roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, Walker played the character March.
In March 2014, the film rights for her novel (2013) were reported to have been optioned, with Madonna to serve as director.
Awards
-
Women of Distinction Award from the American Association of University Women,
[ Women of Distinction Program . Retrieved June 26, 2012.]
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"Feminist of the Year" award from the Fund for the Feminist Majority,
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"Paz y Justicia" award from the Vanguard Public Foundation,
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"Intrepid Award" from the National Organization for Women,
[ NOW's First Annual Intrepid Awards Gala: Rebecca Walker . Now.org. Retrieved May 7, 2012.]
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"Champion of Choice" award from the California Abortion Rights Action League,
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"Women Who Could Be President Award" from the League of Women Voters.
Walker has also received an honorary Doctorate from the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Walker is featured in The Advocate′s "Forty Under 40" issue of June/July 2009 as one of the most influential "coming out" media professionals.
In 2016, she was selected as one of BBC's 100 Women.[ "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?" , BBC News, November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016.]
See also
External links
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"Becoming the Third Wave" by Rebecca Walker
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Curry, Ginette. "Toubab La!": Literary Representations of Mixed-race Characters in the African Diaspora, Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2007.
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Official site
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Official Myspace page
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Third Wave Foundation
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Rebecca Walker, Excerpt: Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, The Multiracial Activist, December 1, 2000
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Book Forum article
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Editorial Work, Greater Good Magazine, Summer 2008
