homage to my hips Summary & Analysis
by Lucille Clifton

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The American poet Lucille Clifton published "homage to my hips" in 1980 as part of her fourth poetry collection, Two-Headed Woman. As the title suggests, the poem is a celebration of the speaker's body and femininity with a focus on her "big hips." These, the speaker says, demand "space" in society, refuse to be "held back," and have "never been enslaved." The poem is also a celebration specifically of Black womanhood, associating the speaker's self-confidence and demand for dignity with freedom and independence in the face of oppression.

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