Connected Collectives: Conversation with Barbara Smith

Barbara Smith at the 1993 National Gay Rights March

I was honored to interview three black women political leaders, the first being the black feminist lesbian legend, Barbara Smith. Barbara Smith is one of the most influential black feminist scholars, writers, and publishers of our time. She is best known as cofounder of the Combahee River Collective; for coining the term “identity politics;” for cofounding Kitchen Table Women of Color Press with Audre Lorde, and for her work in establishing the field of black women’s studies in the US. In light of Ms. Smith’s decision to name the Combahee River Collective after Harriet Tubman’s raid on the Combahee River, this project endeavors to trace the cross-generational resistance inspired by Tubman from the Combahee River Collective to today’s Movement for Black Lives.