World Poetry Day: In a post #MeToo world, feminist poetry is flourishing

The rise of the #MeToo movement allowed women around the world to express the extent of the gender-based violence that they suffer every day.

On TV, on social media or in the streets, celebrities and anonymous women alike put their experiences into words and for once, they were heard. Among them were poets.

In the past eight years since #MeToo came about, new feminist voices have emerged in the field of poetry. At the same time, historical women poets, whose work had almost faded from popular memory, are the subject of renewed interest.

A deep connection between feminism and poetry

Poetry has been a feature of feminism for as long as the movement itself has existed. In the American Women’s Suffrage Movement, activists like Alice Duer Miller and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were also poets. In the UK, Sylvia Pankhurst wrote verses during her detention at Holloway prison in London.

“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence”, African American writer and civil rights activist Audre Lorde wrote in 1985.

Feminist poets have in common to share certain themes, that are sometimes intimate and difficult. "[At the start of my career], it was important for me to talk about violence", Franco-Tunisian author and performer Nelly Slim told Euronews Culture. "Sexual violence, sexist violence, racist violence, all kinds."

For Belgian slam poet Lisette Lombé, poetry as an art form mirrors the urgency of the feminist struggle. “In the poetic language, there is a fire, a kind of tension that's well suited to the struggle. It takes several years to write a novel, but fighting demands something that is perhaps more urgent, more direct”, she said.

Language seems to be one of the key elements of the profound connection between poetry and feminism. “Poetry tends to address reality directly and tries to put things into words”, said writer and translator Lénaïg Cariou.

“Sometimes feminism simply means naming things. Just think of the clitoris, for instance. Naming it already seems to be a militant act.”

A renewed attention

In 2019, Lenaïg Cariou co-founded the French-American literary translation collective Limited Connection. Their purpose is to translate underrepresented poets, often queer people, women, and people of colour.

Their most recent project is the first French version of Adrienne Rich’s 1978 collection "The Dream of a Common Language", in which she writes about motherhood and lesbian love among other themes.

Cariou and her colleagues felt that the translation was long-awaited, and they had no trouble finding a publisher for their project.

“In recent years, there has been a surge in poetry and literature festivals run by women, which was very rare in the past”, she explained. “We have seen several new women-led poetry publishing houses and poetry magazines. It was as if all of a sudden, women and queer people had taken over production resources more than ever before.”

By putting feminist issues at the forefront of the media discourse, the #MeToo movement allowed these spaces to emerge.

“There was so little [feminist poetry available] that now there's a hunger for it”, analysed Lombé. “It's like a great uncovering movement.”

These new ventures celebrate historical poets but also offer outlets for young voices. Between 2017 and 2019, Nelly Slim and French-Swiss author Marcia Burnier published the queer and feminist fanzine It’s Been Lovely But I Have to Scream Now, which included works by more than 45 contributing writers.

"The creation of this publishing space was born out of a necessity", Slim recalled. "As women, lesbians, queer people and people of colour, we're so lacking in legitimacy that we need a space where we can experiment without coming up against selection bias."

Writing and speaking

Feminist poets are also forming collectives, to write and perform within a community. In the UK for instance, the queer Resonance poetry collective organises regular workshops and open mics at the Feminist Library in London.

Poetry is indeed not just about writing, but about performing as well. Célia Slamtrotteuse is a slam poet from Switzerland. When she started her career in the 2010s, she was one of the few women on the Swiss slam poetry scene, and her texts on female sexuality and women’s rights were often considered shocking and impertinent.

“It’s a well-known saying that what is written remains and what is said sets you free”, she said. “There is something transcendent about getting it out and above all being vulnerable on stage.”

As an example, take a look at this 1987 performance from Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Still I Rise”

“Does my sexiness offend you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance as if I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?”

Maya Angelou does not just recite these lines. She plays, she dances and she lives as she celebrates Black women’s often decried sexuality.

When poets perform on stage, the public sees “the bodies of people of colour, they see women's bodies, they see trans bodies”, said Lombé, who is from a Congolese background. Slam poetry “is also about physicality, about embodying a text.”

Over the years, feminist poets have gained more traction, including in established institutions. In 2023, the Swiss festival Printemps de la poésie (Poetry Spring) invited Célia Slamtrotteuse to host a slam poetry workshop for its edition on female poetic heritage. And Lisette Lombé was appointed Belgium's National Poet in 2024.

"I hope that this feminist revolution underway in the field of poetry will continue", said Lenaïg Cariou. "It's there, it's powerful but like any feminist revolution, it's precarious and partly unfinished."