Poet and activist Cheryl Clarke was educated at Howard University and Rutgers University. Her books of poetry include Experimental Love (Firebrand Books, 1993),; Humid Pitch (1989); Living as a Lesbian (1986); and Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1983). Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The Black Scholar, The Kenyon Review, Belles Lettres, The World in Us: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Poetry, and Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (1992). Her most recent book is a history of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s titled After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (Rutgers, 2005). Clarke is the Director of the Office of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian-Gay Concerns at Rutgers University. She lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.