Margaret Randall
From the poem “Carrying Dead Mothers at Our Breast”:
“…We were young women in a world
that hated women
unless we stood up fast
or clawed our way
through groin to consciousness.
You had the hard drugs
which may have made it easier.
I was already headed south.
Now we are two aging sisters
unruly still, clear-eyed…”
***
Margaret Randall (New York 1936), has lived for extended periods in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Ordered deported in 1985 by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, won case in 1989. Mother of four, grandmother of ten. Lives with partner, Barbara Byers. Recent titles include STONES WITNESS, TO CHANGE THE WORLD: MY YEARS IN CUBA, THEIR BACKS TO THE SEA. Forthcoming: MY TOWN, FIRST LAUGH, and RUINS. Received lifetime achievement award for writing and human rights activism from PEN New Mexico (2004).
See her web page, www.margaretrandall.org, which has current links to reviews, audio archives and performance videos. You can also find her on Facebook or request more information from the guild.
