1. Alice Walker
AUTHOR
ACTIVIST
POET

2. Born on February 9, 1944 the eighth and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker

3. The Walkers lived in Eatonton, Georgia and were Sharecroppers: tenant farmers who give up part of their crop as rent

4. As a child, Alice was “precocious,” but at 8 years old her world and demeanor changed

5. While playing “Cowboys & Indians” with her brother, she was accidentally shot and blinded in her right eye

6. The accident had a profound effect on Alice, but she persevered

7. Albeit shy, Alice Walker did not fade into the background
Class Valedictorian
Writing Poetry
Prom Queen

8. In 1961 Alice began her college career at Spelman College where she became active in the Civil Rights Movement

9. After 2 years, she transferred to Sarah Lawrence In New York, and still active in Civil Rights, was invited to the home of Dr. Martin Luther King

10. In recognition for attending Youth World Peace Festival, Finland
She also registered voters in Georgia and worked for NYC Department of Welfare

11. Alice graduated from Sarah Lawrence in In 1967 she married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a civil rights attorney. They were the 1st legally married (in NY), inter-racial couple in Mississippi

12. This was a divisive time in the US, but especially in Mississippi

13. In 1969 while serving as the writer-in-residence at Jackson State College and Tougaloo College. She completed her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland and her daughter, Rebecca, was born

14. A voracious writer, Alice Walker has written 7 Novels including Pulitzer Prize Winning The Color Purple

15. She has also written 4 Short Story Collections, 4 Children’s Books and Volumes of Essays and Poetry
Recent The World Will Follow Joy; Turning Madness Into Flowers (poems) 2013 The Cushion In The Road; Meditation and Wandering As The Whole World Awakens To Being In Harm’s Way (essays, travels and dreams) The Chicken Chronicles, a Memoir, 2011.
Short Stories
In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women Alice Walker Banned You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down The Way Forward Is With A Broken Heart

16. To Hell With Dying Langston Hughes, America Poet
Essays and Prose
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Womanist Prose
Anything We Love Can Be Saved
Living By the Word
I Love Myself When I Am Laughing….A Zora Neale Hurston Reader (editor)
The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult Sent By Earth
Books for Children
To Hell With Dying
Langston Hughes, America Poet
Finding the Green Stone
There Is A Flower At The Tip Of My Nose SmellingMe
Why War Is Never A Good Idea

17. Poetry
Once
Revolutionary Petunias
Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful
Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You In the Morning
Her Blue Body Everything We Know, Earthling Poems
Absolute Trust In The Goodness Of The Earth
A Poem Travelled Down My Arm, poetry and drawings
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
The World Will Follow Joy
Turning Madness Into Flowers

18. Alice Walker’s books have sold over 15 million copies and counting
Alice Walker’s books have sold over 15 million copies and counting! Furthermore, her work has been translated into over 24 Languages.

19. Since her days at Spelman and Sarah Lawrence, Alice Walker has been an outspoken Political Activist all around the Globe from Cuba to the Gaza Strip to Africa

20. “I have admired and loved Fidel Castro since 1959, when he and his companions came down from the mountains to attempt to fashion a new society for their people.  There was Fidel, there was Celia, there was Che, there was Camilio, and so many others who loved humanity and could not bear to see it starving and in rags, humiliated endlessly in its ignorance and poverty.  Beaten, murdered or imprisoned for being desperate and poor. These impoverished hordes represented my own ancestors too, grandparents, parents, and far too many of my living kin” (from her website).

21. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women
Is a 1993 book by Alice Walker with Pratibha Parmar, who made an award-winning documentary by the same name

22. Alice Walker considers Israel to be among the biggest terrorists in the Middle East
In 2011, Alice bravely joined a flotilla of ships who tried to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. She joined the flotilla of ships who were attempting to raise awareness about what was happening in the Gaza Strip and to bring supplies to the Palestinians. She has been a Palestinian activist since the “Six Day War” in 1967.

23. A Staunch Feminist, Alice Walker introduced the idea of “Womanism” instead of “Feminism” because she felt women of color were not properly represented in the movement

24. In an article online (mindanddiscourse
In an article online (mindanddiscourse.com) Alice Walker remarked, “There are times when the label "foolish" might have fit me, but I don't want to admit to that label regarding my entire lifespan”

25. Be Nobody’s Darling
Be nobody's darling;  Be an outcast. Take the contradictions Of your life And wrap around You like a shawl, To parry stones To keep you warm. Watch the people succumb To madness With ample cheer;  Let them look askance at you And you askance reply. Be an outcast;  Be pleased to walk alone (Uncool)  Or line the crowded River beds With other impetuous Fools. Make a merry gathering On the bank Where thousands perished For brave hurt words They said. But be nobody's darling;  Be an outcast. Qualified to live Among your dead. 

26. Amy S.Currle Dr. Kathryn Wymer 14 November 2016 LGBT Literature