Rebecca Walker

{{Infobox person

| name = Rebecca Walker

| image = Rebeccawalker.jpg

| caption = Press photo, 2003

| birth_name = Rebecca Leventhal

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|11|17}}

| birth_place = Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| alma_mater = Yale University

| occupation = Writer, feminist

| parents = Alice Walker
Melvyn Leventhal

| partner = Rachel M. Harper

| children = 1

| website = [http://www.rebeccawalker.com/ www.rebeccawalker.com]

}}

Rebecca Walker (born Rebecca Leventhal; November 17, 1969) is an American writer, feminist, and activist. Walker has been regarded as one of the prominent voices of Third Wave Feminism, and the coiner of the term "third wave", since publishing a 1992 article on feminism in Ms. magazine called "Becoming the Third Wave", in which she proclaimed: "I am the Third Wave."{{Cite web |url=http://heathengrrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/becoming-third-wave-by-rebecca-walker.html |title=HeathenGrrl's Blog: Becoming the Third Wave by Rebecca Walker |date=February 28, 2007 |access-date=December 6, 2011 |archive-date=April 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200404030632/http://heathengrrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/becoming-third-wave-by-rebecca-walker.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-walker/anita-hill_b_1031311.html|title=Anita Hill Woke Us Up|last=Walker|first=Rebecca|date=October 27, 2011|website=HuffPost|access-date=April 19, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331125109/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anita-hill_b_1031311|url-status=live}}

Walker's writing, teaching, and speeches focus on race, gender, politics, power, and culture.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rebeccawalker.com/about|title=About|website=rebeccawalker.com|access-date=April 19, 2017|archive-date=July 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704055828/http://www.rebeccawalker.com/about|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/fashion/18walker.html|title=Alice Walker – Rebecca Walker – Feminist – Feminist Movement – Children|last=Rosenbloom|first=Stephanie|date=March 18, 2007|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 19, 2017|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=April 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420144102/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/fashion/18walker.html|url-status=live}} In her activism work, she helped co-found the Third Wave Fund that morphed into the Third Wave Foundation, an organization that supports young women of color, queer, intersex, and trans individuals by providing tools and resources they need to be leaders in their communities through activism and philanthropy.

Walker does extensive writing and speaking about gender, racial, economic, and social justice at universities around the United States and internationally.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rebeccawalker.com/speaking-engagements|title=Speaking|website=rebeccawalker.com|access-date=April 19, 2017|archive-date=July 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720182419/http://www.rebeccawalker.com/speaking-engagements|url-status=live}}

In 1994, Time named Walker as one of the 50 future leaders of America.{{Cite web| last = Miller| first = Zeke J.| author2 = Lily Rothman| title = What Happened to the 'Future Leaders' of the 1990s?| newspaper = Time| date = December 5, 2014| url = https://time.com/3618532/future-leaders-of-the-1990s/| access-date = August 17, 2015| archive-date = March 31, 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200331125108/http://time.com/3618532/future-leaders-of-the-1990s/| url-status = live}} Her work has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Salon, Glamour, and Essence and has been featured on CNN and MTV.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rebeccawalker.com/biography-3|title=Full Biography|website=rebeccawalker.com|access-date=April 19, 2017|archive-date=November 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120193612/http://www.rebeccawalker.com/biography-3|url-status=live}}

Early life and education

Born Rebecca Leventhal in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, she is the daughter of Alice Walker, an African-American writer whose work includes The Color Purple, and Melvyn R. Leventhal, a Jewish American civil rights lawyer. Her parents married in New York before going to Mississippi to work in civil rights.{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Ross|title=Rebecca Walker bringing message to Expo|work=Pensacola News Journal|date=April 8, 2007|url=http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS01/704080331/1005|access-date=April 8, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705223230/http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070408%2FNEWS01%2F704080331%2F1005|archive-date=July 5, 2007}} After her parents divorced in 1976, Walker spent her childhood alternating every two years between her father's home in the largely Jewish Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City and her mother's largely African-American environment in San Francisco. Walker attended The Urban School of San Francisco.{{Cite web |date=December 22, 2020 |title=Season's Greeting from All of Us at Urban |url=https://www.urbanschool.org/cf_enotify/view.cfm?n=4487 |access-date=July 11, 2022 |series=Blues Notes |publisher=Urban School Alumni Association}}

When she was 15, she decided to change her surname from Leventhal to Walker, her mother's surname.{{Cite web|last=Rosenbloom|first=Stephanie|date=March 18, 2007|title=Evolution of a Feminist Daughter|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/fashion/18walker.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214231451/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/fashion/18walker.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all|archive-date=February 14, 2017|access-date=April 7, 2011|work=The New York Times}} After high school, she studied at Yale University, where she graduated cum laude in 1992. Walker identifies as Jewish, White and Black; her 2000 memoir is titled Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self.{{Cite book|last=Walker|first=Rebecca|title=Black, White, and Jewish: Autiobiography of a Shifting Self|publisher=Riverhead Books|year=2000|isbn=9781573221696}}

Activism

= The Third Wave Fund =

After graduating from Yale University, she and Shannon Liss (now Shannon Liss-Riordan) co-founded the Third Wave Fund, a non-profit organization aimed at encouraging young women to get involved in activism and leadership roles.{{Cite web|url=https://nyunews.com/2016/04/21/third-wave-feminism/|title=Third-Wave Feminism|last=Bazeley|first=Alex|date=April 21, 2016|website=Washington Square News|access-date=August 2, 2019|archive-date=March 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331125111/https://nyunews.com/2016/04/21/third-wave-feminism/|url-status=live}} The organization's initial mission, based on Walker's article, was to "fill a void in young women's leadership and to mobilize young people to become more involved socially and politically in their communities."[http://www.thirdwavefoundation.org/about-us/history/ History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007020253/http://www.thirdwavefoundation.org/about-us/history/ |date=October 7, 2012 }}, Third Wave Foundation. Retrieved May 7, 2012. In its first year, the organization initiated a campaign that registered more than 20,000 new voters across the United States. The organization now provides grants to individuals and projects that support young women. The fund was adapted as The Third Wave Foundation in 1997 and continues to support young activists. In the wake of the November 2016 presidential election in the United States, the organization received more than four times the normal number of requests for emergency grants.{{Cite web|url=http://thirdwavefund.org/index.html|title=Welcome to Third Wave Fund!|website=Third Wave Fund|access-date=April 20, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331125114/http://thirdwavefund.org/index.html|url-status=live}}

= Teaching =

Walker views teaching as a way to give people the strength to speak the truth, to change perspectives, and to empower people with the ability to change the world. She lectures on writing memoirs, multi-generational feminism, diversity in the media, multi-racial identity, contemporary visual arts and emerging cultures.

Speaking

Walker concentrates on speaking about multicultural identity (including her own), enlightened masculinity, and inter-generational and third-wave feminism at high schools, universities and conferences around the world. She has spoken at Harvard, Exeter, Head Royce, Oberlin, Smith, MIT, Xavier, Stanford, and Louisiana State University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lsu.edu/hss/wgs/files/newsletterspr2005.pdf|website=lsu.edu|access-date=December 19, 2018|title=Archived copy|archive-date=July 21, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721212328/http://www.lsu.edu/hss/wgs/files/newsletterspr2005.pdf|url-status=live}} She has also addressed organizations and corporations such as The National Council of Teachers of English, the Walker Art Center, the American Association of University Women, the National Women's Studies Association, Out and Equal, the National Organization for Women, and Hewitt Associates. In the United States, she has been featured on various popular media outlets such as Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Charlie Rose.

Books and writing

= Major works =

Walker's first major work was the book To be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (1996), which consisted of articles that she compiled and edited. The book reevaluated the feminist movement of the time. Reviewer Emilie Fale, an Assistant Professor of Communication at Ithaca College, described it: "The twenty-three contributors in To Be Real offer varied perspectives and experiences that challenge our stereotypes of feminist beliefs as they negotiate the troubled waters of gender roles, identity politics and "power feminism".{{Cite web|url=http://www.rebeccawalker.com/work/to-be-real|title=To Be Real|website=rebeccawalker.com|access-date=April 20, 2017|archive-date=March 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327235933/http://www.rebeccawalker.com/work/to-be-real|url-status=live}} As a collection of "personal testimonies", this work shows how third-wave activists use personal narratives to describe their experiences with social and gender injustice.{{Cite web|url=https://beingfeministblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/todays-feminism-a-brief-look-at-third-wave-feminism/|title=Today's Feminism: A Brief Look at Third-Wave Feminism|last=Fisher|first=J. A.|date=May 16, 2013|website=Being Feminist|access-date=April 20, 2017|archive-date=July 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709232520/https://beingfeministblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/todays-feminism-a-brief-look-at-third-wave-feminism/|url-status=live}} Contributors include feminist writers such as bell hooks and Naomi Wolf. According to Walker's website, this book has been taught in Gender Studies programs around the world.

In her memoir Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self (2000), Walker explores her early years in Mississippi as the child of parents who were active in the later years of the Civil Rights Movement. She also touches on living with two parents with very active careers, which she believes led to their separation. She discusses encountering racial prejudice and the difficulties of being mixed-race in a society with rigid cultural barriers. She also discusses developing her sexuality and identity as a bisexual woman.{{Cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/blackwhitejewish0000walk|title=Nonfiction Book Review: Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self|author=Walker, Rebecca|work=Publishers Weekly|publisher=Riverhead Books|isbn=978-1-57322-169-6|year=2000|access-date=April 20, 2017|url-access=registration}}

Her 2007 memoir Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After A Lifetime of Ambivalence explores her life with a stepson and biological son against a framework of feminism. Walker was criticized for her stigmatizing views on biological parenthood being superior to adoptive parenthood and adoptive parents boycotted her work.{{Cite book|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/may/26/familyandrelationships.family2 |title='Can I survive having a baby? Will I lose myself ... ?' |work=The Guardian |date=2007-05-27 |access-date=2024-02-24 |last1=Krum |first1=Sharon }}

Walker was a contributing editor to Ms. magazine for many years. Her writing has been published in a range of magazines, such as Harper's, Essence, Glamour, Interview, Buddhadharma, Vibe, Child, and Mademoiselle magazines. She has appeared on CNN and MTV, and has been covered in The New York Times, Chicago Times, Esquire, Shambhala Sun, among other publications. Walker has taught workshops on writing at international conferences and MFA programs. She also works as a private publishing consultant.

Her first novel, Adé: A Love Story, was published in 2013. It features a biracial college student, Farida, who falls in love with Adé, a black Kenyan man. The couple's plan to marry is interrupted when Farida gets malaria and the two must struggle through a civil war in Kenya. The novel was generally well received by critics and laypeople alike.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/ad%C3%A9-love-story|title=Review: Adé: A Love Story|website=nyjournalofbooks.com|author=Schultz, Laurie|access-date=April 20, 2017|archive-date=April 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420144140/http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/ad%C3%A9-love-story|url-status=live}}

Personal life

Walker identifies as bisexual. She dated neo-soul musician Meshell Ndegeocello, whose son she helped raise even after their relationship ended.{{Citation|last=Maran|first=Meredith|title=What Little Boys are Made of|date=May 28, 2004|url=http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2004/05/28/rebecca_walker|work=Salon|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204205741/http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2004/05/28/rebecca_walker|access-date=April 7, 2011|archive-date=February 4, 2011|author-link=Meredith Maran|url-status=live}}

She has been married to writer Rachel M. Harper since 2012.

Once estranged from her mother Alice Walker, she has reconciled with her, and the two have since appeared at literary events together.{{Cite web|title=Rebecca Walker Explains Rift With Mother, Alice| website=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92373475|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802185904/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92373475|archive-date=August 2, 2019|access-date=August 2, 2019|publisher=NPR}}{{Cite web|last=PhD|first=Nsenga K. Burton|date=August 1, 2019|title=Alice Walker: Hometown Celebrates Literary Legend's 75th Birthday|url=https://www.blackpressusa.com/alice-walker-hometown-celebrates-literary-legends-75th-birthday/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802054347/https://www.blackpressusa.com/alice-walker-hometown-celebrates-literary-legends-75th-birthday/|archive-date=August 2, 2019|access-date=August 2, 2019|website=BlackPressUSA}}{{Cite web|last=Sneed|first=Shannon|date=July 18, 2019|title=Alice Walker comes home|url=https://www.msgr.com/article/alice-walker-comes-home|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802185904/https://www.msgr.com/article/alice-walker-comes-home|archive-date=August 2, 2019|access-date=August 2, 2019|website=Eatonton Messenger}}

Bibliography

To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (1996) (editor)
Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self (2000)
What Makes A Man: 22 Writers Imagine The Future (2004) (editor)
Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence (2007)
One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love (2009) (editor)
Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness (Soft Skull Press, February 2012) (editor)Staff (December 12, 2011). [http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59376-417-3 "Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness. Edited by Rebecca Walker"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214001621/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59376-417-3 |date=February 14, 2012 }}, Publishers Weekly.
Adé: A Love Story (2013), (novel)

Film

In the 1998 film Primary Colors, Walker played the character March. The movie is a roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.

In March 2014, the film rights for her novel Adé: A Love Story (2013) were reported to have been optioned, with Madonna to serve as director.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-madonna-to-film-rebecca-walkers-ade-a-love-story-20140325,0,649899.story|title=Madonna to film Rebecca Walker's 'Ade: A Love Story'|last=Kellogg|first=Carolyn|date=March 25, 2014|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=February 21, 2020|archive-date=April 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140425192531/http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-madonna-to-film-rebecca-walkers-ade-a-love-story-20140325,0,649899.story|url-status=live}}

Awards

Women of Distinction Award from the American Association of University Women,[http://www.aauw.org/learn/awards/wod.cfm Women of Distinction Program] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615115006/http://www.aauw.org/learn/awards/wod.cfm |date=June 15, 2012 }}. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
"Feminist of the Year" award from the Fund for the Feminist Majority,
"Paz y Justicia" award from the Vanguard Public Foundation,
"Intrepid Award" from the National Organization for Women,[http://www.now.org/organization/gala/2003/walker.html NOW's First Annual Intrepid Awards Gala: Rebecca Walker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061120235002/http://www.now.org/organization/gala/2003/walker.html |date=November 20, 2006 }}. Now.org. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
"Champion of Choice" award from the California Abortion Rights Action League,
"Women Who Could Be President Award" from the League of Women Voters.

Walker has also received an honorary Doctorate from the North Carolina School of the Arts.{{Cite web|url=https://library.uncsa.edu/uncsahistory/doctorates|title=Guides: UNCSA History: Honorary Doctorates|last=Dorsky|first=Kait|website=library.uncsa.edu|language=en|access-date=2020-04-10|archive-date=November 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106212918/https://library.uncsa.edu/uncsahistory/doctorates|url-status=live}}

Walker is featured in The Advocate′s "Forty Under 40" issue of June/July 2009 as one of the most influential "out" media professionals.{{Cite web|title=Forty Under 40|date=June–July 2009|url=http://www.advocate.com/printArticle.aspx?id=72359|work=The Advocate|access-date=April 7, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20100116115043/http://www.advocate.com/printArticle.aspx?id=72359|archive-date=January 16, 2010}}

In 2016, she was selected as one of BBC's 100 Women.[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-38012048 "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223235036/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-38012048 |date=December 23, 2016 }}, BBC News, November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016.

References

External links

[http://heathengrrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/becoming-third-wave-by-rebecca-walker.html "Becoming the Third Wave" by Rebecca Walker]
Curry, Ginette. [https://www.amazon.com/Literary-Representations-Mixed-Race-Characters-Diaspora/dp/1847182313 "Toubab La!": Literary Representations of Mixed-race Characters in the African Diaspora], Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2007.
[http://www.rebeccawalker.com Official site]
[https://www.myspace.com/officialrebeccawalker Official Myspace page]
{{IMDb name|0505296}}
[http://thirdwavefund.org/index.html Third Wave Foundation]
[http://multiracial.com/index.php/2000/12/01/black-white-and-jewish-autobiography-of-a-shifting-self/ Rebecca Walker, Excerpt: Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self], The Multiracial Activist, December 1, 2000
[http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/014_04/1418 Book Forum article]
[http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/2008summer/Walker851.html Editorial Work], Greater Good Magazine, Summer 2008