Hattie Gossett facts for kids

Hattie Gossett (born April 11, 1942) is an American writer. She is known for her plays, poems, and editing work. Hattie Gossett is also a feminist. This means she supports equal rights for women, especially black women. Her writings often help young black women feel good about themselves.

About Hattie Gossett

Hattie Gossett was born in New Jersey. She went to New York University. There, she earned a special degree called a Master of Fine Arts in 1993. She was also a Yip Harburg Fellow. Later, in 2001, she was a special artist at The New School. This was called a David Randolph Distinguished Artist-in-Residence.

Her Amazing Career

Hattie Gossett helped plan Essence magazine. This popular magazine for black women first came out in 1970. She also joined the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. This group was started in 1980 by Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith. It was a publishing company for women of color.

Hattie Gossett worked as an editor for many magazines. These included True Story, Redbook, and McCall's. She also worked for black theater magazines. Later, she taught writing and black literature. She gave workshops at places like Rutgers University and Oberlin College. At Rutgers, she helped create a course. It was one of the first courses about writings by African-American and African women. She made it with Barbara Masekela.

What She Wrote

Hattie Gossett has written many important works. Her book of poems, Presenting...Sister Noblues, came out in 1988. Another one of her poems is "between a rock and a hard place." This poem was used in a dance show called Shelter. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed it starting in 1995.

She also added a special reading to a dance piece. It was called Rememorabilia, Scraps From Out a Tin Can, Everybody Has Some. This reading was like a slave narrative. In 2007, she wrote another book. It was called the immigrant suite: hey xenophobe! Who you calling foreigner?.