Homage to my Hips Speech PDF

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Notes made for a speech presented in regards to a poem I was assigned to study...

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Homage to My Hips Speech by Hannah Shill

Well. When I first saw the title of this poem, the first thing that came to my mind was “was this written by Shakira?” Or possibly Meghan Trainor? (Hips count as bass, right?) I don’t know. Okay, moving on. The topic I have chosen is the topic of liberation from expectation. The poet was an African American woman who lived in a time when there was both lots of racism and sexism. How lovely. Talk about a lose-lose situation. I’m grateful to live in a day and age in which there have been great improvements in both of these areas. Anyway, she wrote this poem as a way to break the stereotypes made by society. And by society, I mostly mean white men. The poet of “Homage to my Hips” is Lucille Clifton. She was born in Depew, New York on June 27, 1936. She had a pretty awful childhood. Her father was an abusive drunk and money was always tight in their home. In 1953, she began to study at Howard University in Washington D.C. which was a p  rivate, coeducational, nonsectarian, and historically African American university. Two years later in 1955, s he moved back to New York and transferred to Fredonia

State Teachers College which was known as a liberal arts college. It’s pretty admirable that she was so driven to be educated in a time where both her race and her sex were discriminated against. It was at Fredonia State Teachers College where she met Fred James Clifton, whom she would later marry in 1958. Like I said before, Lucille lived in a time when African Americans were frowned upon and women were still fighting for the equal rights they deserved. Two movements emerged from

this, The Black Arts Movement and the Feminist Movement. The Black Arts Movement occurred between the 1960s and the 1970s. African American artists used their creativity to describe their culture and experiences to the discriminating white people. The feminist movement was something that had already been going on for many decades and they sought equal rights for women. These movements both had a goal to achieve freedom and equality. The summary of the poem is very simple. She has big hips. That’s good. They’re free hips that can do amazing things. They do what they want to do, and go where they want to go. They attract the men. There isn’t anything that they can’t do. The possibilities are endless! Although this isn’t specifically mentioned in the poem, hips are also very helpful in carrying and delivering a baby. Therefore, I feel bad for any stick figure woman who wants to have a child. Hips are an essential part of womanhood. In my opinion, the main theme in this poem is opposing society’s *ahem*, pretty much impossible and unachievable ideas of beauty. Back then, and even still today, women are expected to have the tiny, thin body of a nine-year-old boy (plus breasts, minus hips). We always see models that “have” this body type (Let’s face it, those models are fake. Photoshop works miracles). Lucille Clifton talks about how powerful her larger hips are in the poem and she encourages women to ignore the “beautiful” women they see all over advertisements and the media and to just love and accept who they are. She uses a lot of repetition in this poem. She uses it to get her point across. She repeatedly describes her hips, because let’s face it, that’s what the entire poem is about. It’s about these fantastic hips she has and the power that is hers by being a woman.

“Homage to my Hips”, as well as the rest of Clifton’s work was accepted with praise. Her poetry collection “Two-Headed Woman” won and was nominated for many awards. Clifton was called a “visionary poet” and several poets and writers spoke highly of her. Her work had a particular emphasis on enduring well, and demonstrating strength through times of hardships and trials. She was known for saying a lot, but using few words to get her point across. She was also an excellent children’s author. Her books taught a great deal to African American children about their past, and how to live in their current society. In addition to all of these things, she was a Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and also a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She lead the movements that she was so passionate about by her outstanding example. So to conclude, I have to say that being the feminist I am, I really enjoyed this poem. I love the message that it sends about being empowered as a woman. You can do anything that you set your mind to, and our hips give us strength. If I could say one thing to Lucille Clifton, it would be this: “Heck yes, sister! Curvy girls unite!”...