Hattie Gossett

Hattie Gossett is an African American playwright, poet, and editor whose work centers on empowering Black women and challenging the social myths that shape their lives. An early contributor to the development of Essence magazine, she helped create a platform dedicated to Black women’s culture, beauty, and identity. Gossett’s poetry confronts stereotypes and affirms self-determination. A co-founder of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1981, she worked to expand publishing opportunities for marginalized voices. Through her writing and activism, Gossett consistently challenged the marginalization of Black women on multiple fronts, critiquing sexism within Black political movements that often sidelined women’s voices, while also confronting the racism present in predominantly white feminist spaces. She called attention to the ways these overlapping exclusions limited meaningful progress, and pushed for movements to address race, gender, class, and sexuality together rather than in isolation. Committed to amplifying underrepresented perspectives, Gossett advocated for more inclusive  forms of representation that allowed Black women and other women of color to speak for themselves and shape their own cultural and political narratives.