THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Donna Allegra Simms
December 8, 1953 – January 13, 2020
“Fiction is about people with problems to solve. Our conflicts embody the many forms of oppression.” July 21, 2001
Writer, poet, essayist and dancer. Early member of the Jemima Writers Collective, the first black lesbian writing group in New York City. Active member of the international Tradeswomen movement and community. A prolific writer who has been published in more than 30 lesbian and feminist anthologies and numerous Black and lesbian journals and magazines.
More About Donna:
- Donna Allegra and “Dance of the Cranes,” from Carolyn Gage’s blog, March 7, 2020
- Black Women Writers Project
- On C-SPAN
- Donna Allegra papers, Sc MG 792, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- The extinction of Black women, An informal discussion by three Black women from the New York Black Feminist Counseling Collective, sponsored by the WBAI Women’s Radio Workshop. Pacifica Radio Archives, 1974
- Tradeswomen website