The inaugural event of the Pembroke Center Publics Initiative and Lecture Series featured Alexis Pauline Gumbs, who describes herself as a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist. Gumbs is a writer whose feminist critical and creative practice includes poetry, fiction and experimental writing. In her talk, “Nutmeg and the Scale of Revolution: for Audre Lorde,” she shared research from her forthcoming book, “The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde,” focusing on how the Grenadian Revolution and the work of Kitchen Table Women of Color Press impacted Lorde’s political approach. Gumbs was introduced by Leela Gandhi, Shauna McKee Stark ’76, P’10 Director of the Pembroke Center. In addition, closing remarks were offered by Kevin E Quashie, professor of English at Brown University.

Correction: At 1:05:38 the essay mentioned was Spillers commenting on Margaret Walker’s work, not Zora Neale Hurston

*About the Pembroke Center Publics Initiative and Lecture Series*

The Pembroke Center Publics Initiative and Lecture Series brings to Brown guests whose work in any sphere, from academics to activism and well beyond, contends with issues of gender and sexuality in a transformative manner. As a feminist research center devoted to critical scholarship on the struggles faced by people across national and transnational contexts, especially those whose gender identity or sexual orientation make them targets of violence, the Pembroke Center addresses real-world questions and commitments. More information about the series:

*The Pembroke Center’s 40th Anniversary*

The 2021–22 academic year marks the 40th anniversary of the Pembroke Center. The center was founded in 1981, a decade after Pembroke College — the coordinate women’s college of Brown University — merged fully with the men’s college. As the greater community honors 130 years of women at Brown, the Pembroke Center is delighted to celebrate its history of cultivating interdisciplinary work on gender and sexuality through its research, teaching, archival and community-building programs.

For more information on the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, please visit us at:

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