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100-528: Rees is the first African-American woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay , for Mudbound . She has also received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie , and won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film for Bessie . Reeds received

200-587: A United States Artists Fellowship in 2011. Rees was born in 1977 in Nashville, Tennessee . Her father was a police officer and her mother was a scientist at Vanderbilt University . Rees attended local schools and college at Florida A&M University . After graduating from business school, Rees held an array of jobs, including working as a salesperson for panty-liners, a vendor for wart-remover and bunion pads, and also worked in marketing and brand management. While working for Dr. Scholl's , Rees worked on set for

300-410: A poet , she is well known for technical mastery and emotional expression, as well as her poems that express anger and outrage at civil and social injustices she observed throughout her life. She was the recipient of national and international awards and the founding member of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press . As a spoken word artist, her delivery has been called powerful, melodic, and intense by

400-545: A "biomythography", chronicles her childhood and adulthood. The narrative deals with the evolution of Lorde's sexuality and self-awareness. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), Lorde asserts the necessity of communicating the experience of marginalized groups to make their struggles visible in a repressive society. She emphasizes the need for different groups of people (particularly white women and African-American women) to find common ground in their lived experience, but also to face difference directly, and use it as

500-460: A Black lesbian filmmaker, Rees's intersectional identity is a huge part of her and is also unique in Hollywood. Rees has said that her dissimilarity from much of Hollywood has only amplified the importance of translating her experience into her films. Rees's sexuality makes an appearance in her films, such as her 2011 film Pariah (2011), which tells the story of a teenage Black girl navigating

600-579: A Black woman poet in the '60s, from jump. It meant being invisible. It meant being really invisible. It meant being doubly invisible as a Black feminist woman and it meant being triply invisible as a Black lesbian and feminist". In her essay "The Erotic as Power", written in 1978 and collected in Sister Outsider , Lorde theorizes the Erotic as a site of power for women only when they learn to release it from its suppression and embrace it, without

700-441: A Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special . Together with Virgil Williams, Rees wrote Mudbound , a period drama adapted from the 2008 novel of the same name by Hillary Jordan. Rees also directed the film, starring Carey Mulligan , Garrett Hedlund , Jason Clarke , Jason Mitchell , and Mary J. Blige . After being shown at Sundance in 2017, Mudbound became

800-470: A black flag, but her Blackness is there, implicit, in the bone". Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth, and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde openly confirms her homosexuality for

900-536: A commercial and she realized she enjoyed the creation of film content. This led her to pursue film school. For graduate school, she attended New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts . While at New York University for film, Spike Lee was her professor and mentor. Dee Rees went on to work under Spike Lee on his films Inside Man (2006) and When the Levees Broke (2006). During this time, she worked on

1000-460: A community of like-minded people. Some Afro-German women, such as Ika Hügel-Marshall , had never met another black person and the meetings offered opportunities to express thoughts and feelings. Body of a Poet : 1995 was written as a tribute biopic written to honor Lorde. The film centers on the efforts of a young group of lesbians of color. The film celebrates the life and work of Audre Lorde from her birth to her death. Her writings are based on

1100-496: A few of her upcoming projects. Still early in her career, Rees has shown a large array of stylistic choices in her films in her exploration for her identity as a filmmaker. However, Rees has been said to spend hours on shots that end up only being a few seconds, focusing intently on visual details. Spike Lee was Rees's mentor throughout her time at NYU Tisch , and the two worked on films together such as Inside Man (2006) and When The Levees Broke (2006). Lee also worked as

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1200-553: A great deal of the scholarship of white feminists served to augment the oppression of black women, a conviction that led to angry confrontation, most notably in a blunt open letter addressed to the fellow radical lesbian feminist Mary Daly , to which Lorde claimed she received no reply. Daly's reply letter to Lorde, dated four months later, was found in 2003 in Lorde's files after she died. This fervent disagreement with notable white feminists furthered Lorde's persona as an outsider: "In

1300-588: A group of black women activists in Berlin, Audre Lorde coined the term "Afro-German" in 1984 and, consequently, gave rise to the Black movement in Germany. During her many trips to Germany, Lorde became a mentor to a number of women, including May Ayim , Ika Hügel-Marshall , and Helga Emde. Instead of fighting systemic issues through violence, Lorde thought that language was a powerful form of resistance and encouraged

1400-428: A large plot of land in Mississippi. Mudbound tells a story of racism and race relations that continue to be played out today. The movie explores whiteness and the privilege associated with it, while comparing and contrasting the experiences of white and Black people of the period. This work contains many personal connections for Rees, such as her grandfather's experiences in the army and her grandmother's aspiration to be

1500-439: A librarian, continued writing, and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village . She furthered her education at Columbia University , earning a master's degree in library science in 1961. During this period, she worked as a public librarian in nearby Mount Vernon, New York . In 1968 Lorde was writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Lorde's time at Tougaloo College, like her year at

1600-525: A movement that would allow black people to establish identities for themselves outside of stereotypes and discrimination. After a long history of systemic racism in Germany, Lorde introduced a new sense of empowerment for minorities. As seen in the film, she walks through the streets with pride despite stares and words of discouragement. Including moments like these in a documentary was important for people to see during that time. It inspired them to take charge of their identities and discover who they are outside of

1700-642: A new way. At the time Pariah (2011) was released, the film was one of the very few films that follow the journey of a young person of color as they come to terms with their sexuality and come out to their friends and families. In 2011, she won many awards for Pariah, including the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director ,

1800-468: A part of a "continuum of women" and a "concert of voices" within herself. Her conception of her many layers of selfhood is replicated in the multi-genres of her work. Critic Carmen Birkle wrote: "Her multicultural self is thus reflected in a multicultural text, in multi-genres, in which the individual cultures are no longer separate and autonomous entities but melt into a larger whole without losing their individual importance." Her refusal to be placed in

1900-522: A particular category, whether social or literary, was characteristic of her determination to come across as an individual rather than a stereotype. Lorde considered herself a "lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" and used poetry to get this message across. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s – in Langston Hughes ' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA ; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she

2000-590: A poet. Her book of poems, Cables to Rage, came out of her time and experiences at Tougaloo. From 1972 to 1987, Lorde resided on Staten Island . During that time, in addition to writing and teaching she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press . In 1977, Lorde became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect

2100-405: A producer on Rees's breakout film, Pariah (2011). Cassian Elwes , producer of Mudbound (2017), has worked with Rees on multiple projects, such as The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) and Rees's upcoming project, The Kyd's Exquisite Follies . Lisa Cortés directed and produced the 2023 documentary film Little Richard: I am Everything , with Rees serving as an executive producer. Rees

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2200-580: A relationship with poet and writer Sarah M. Broom . They are now married and currently reside in Harlem . Rees, who is of African American descent, incorporates her family's history, specifically her own grandmother's, in her 2017 film Mudbound where American violence and racism are more relevant to the lives of all citizens and a marker of each individual's identity. Short film Feature film Television Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

2300-568: A script for what would later be the feature film Pariah . For her graduate thesis, she adapted the first act of the script and directed it as a short film of the same name. In 2007, the short played at 40 film festivals around the world, winning numerous accolades, including the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival . Rees' first full-length film was a documentary, Eventual Salvation (2009), which aired on

2400-529: A self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger." People are afraid of others' reactions for speaking, but mostly for demanding visibility, which is essential to live. Lorde adds, "We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and ourselves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid." "People are taught to respect their fear of speaking more than silence, but ultimately,

2500-547: A source of strength rather than alienation. She repeatedly emphasizes the need for community in the struggle to build a better world. How to constructively channel the anger and rage incited by oppression is another prominent theme throughout her works, and in this collection in particular. Her most famous essay, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", is included in Sister Outsider . Lorde questions

2600-516: A stenographer. Rees used her grandmother's journal to help guide her process. It contained family photographs of their slave ancestors, with the names of who fought in wars. Rees says that by using this it was a way of interrogating her own personal history. She used written text from the journal, a war ration book, and a photograph of her great grandmother, and each one was an inspiration for something in Mudbound . Rees and Williams were nominated for

2700-509: A stroke around New Year's 1953. In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico , a period she described as a time of affirmation and renewal. During this time, she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as both a lesbian and a poet. On her return to New York, Lorde attended Hunter College , and graduated in the class of 1959. While there, she worked as

2800-419: A woman. She argued that, although differences in gender have received all the focus, it is essential that these other differences are also recognized and addressed. "Lorde," writes Carmen Birkle  [ de ] , "puts her emphasis on the authenticity of experience. She wants her difference acknowledged but not judged; she does not want to be subsumed into the one general category of 'woman. ' " This theory

2900-539: A writing team, with Jim Taylor for Sideways and Jim Rash and Nat Faxon for The Descendants . Michael Wilson was blacklisted at the time of his second Oscar, so the award was given to a front (novelist Pierre Boulle ). However, the Academy officially recognized him as the winner several years later. Billy Wilder , Charles Brackett , Paddy Chayefsky , Francis Ford Coppola , Horton Foote , William Goldman , Robert Benton , Bo Goldman , Waldo Salt , and

3000-484: A young age. She spent very little time with her father and mother, who were both busy maintaining their real estate business in the tumultuous economy after the Great Depression. When she did see them, they were often cold or emotionally distant. In particular, Lorde's relationship with her mother, who was deeply suspicious of people with darker skin than hers (which Lorde had) and the outside world in general,

3100-411: Is E. M. Forster , whose novels A Room with a View and Howards End resulted in wins for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala . Larry McMurtry is the only person who has won for adapting someone else's work ( Brokeback Mountain ), and whose own work has been adapted by someone else, resulting in a win ( Terms of Endearment ) . William Monahan ( The Departed ) and Sian Heder ( CODA ) are

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3200-435: Is a lesbian , and she described Pariah as semi-autobiographical. On National Coming Out Day in 2011, in an interview with BlackEnterprise.com, Rees discussed her coming out experience. When she came out her parents weren't accepting. They sent her emails, cards, letters and Bible verses. Rees sees Pariah as semi-autobiographical because she can relate to the main concepts of the film. Since at least 2017, Rees has been in

3300-504: Is a musical fantasy about a young musician in search of stardom. Rees is working alongside producer Cassian Elwes , with singer-songwriter Santigold set to compose. In June 2021, Dee Rees was announced as the first African-American woman to direct a Criterion film. With the addition of her breakout film, Pariah (2011), Criterion has acknowledged its need for the addition of more female directors and director of color, and has vowed to bring more diversity to light. Rees has said that she

3400-425: Is abuse. They should do it as a method to connect everyone in their differences and similarities. Utilizing the erotic as power allows women to use their knowledge and power to face the issues of racism, patriarchy, and our anti-erotic society. She claims that the erotic can be used as a source of power for women to live with passion in all areas of their life. With the erotic guiding life, Lorde encourages women to use

3500-399: Is also attached to write and direct An Uncivil War for FilmNation . In 2018, Rees was nominated for NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing. Rees directed The Last Thing He Wanted , based upon the novel of the same name by Joan Didion , which stars Anne Hathaway and Willem Dafoe . The film was distributed by Netflix . Rees directed multiple episodes of

3600-425: Is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, musicals, short stories, TV series, and other films and film characters. All sequels are also considered adaptations by this standard, being based on the story and characters of the original film. Prior to its current name,

3700-399: Is the essay, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action". Lorde discusses the importance of speaking, even when afraid, because otherwise silence immobilizes and chokes us. Many people fear to speak the truth because of the real risks of retaliation, but Lorde warns, "Your silence does not protect you." Lorde emphasizes that "the transformation of silence into language and action is

3800-565: Is the first person of Māori descent to receive the award. Emma Thompson ( Sense and Sensibility ) is the only winner who has also won for acting. Winners Billy Bob Thornton ( Sling Blade ) and John Huston ( The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ) have been nominated for acting but not won. Charles Schnee ( The Bad and the Beautiful ) , Billy Bob Thornton ( Sling Blade ), and Bill Condon ( Gods and Monsters ) are

3900-401: Is today known as intersectionality . While acknowledging that the differences between women are wide and varied, most of Lorde's works are concerned with two subsets that concerned her primarily – race and sexuality. In Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson 's documentary A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde , Lorde says, "Let me tell you first about what it was like being

4000-458: Is transferred to a female vanguard capable equally of force and fertility." Lorde's poetry became more open and personal as she grew older and became more confident in her sexuality. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches , Lorde states, "Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought... As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for

4100-524: The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Mudbound , which made Rees the first African-American woman ever to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the first African-American woman to be nominated for a writing Oscar since Suzanne de Passe was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for the 1972 film Lady Sings the Blues . The nomination of Mary J. Blige for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Mudbound made Rees

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4200-558: The Apple TV+ war miniseries Masters of the Air . Rees is currently set to write and direct MGM 's feature film adaptation of George Gershwin 's Porgy and Bess . She will be working alongside the film's producers, Irwin Winkler and Charles Winkler . In 2019, Rees began work as writer and director for her upcoming film, The Kyd's Exquisite Follies . An original script, the film

4300-450: The Coen brothers have won Oscars for both original and adapted screenplays. Frances Marion ( The Big House ) was the first woman to win in any screenplay category, although she won for her original script for Best Writing, which then included both original and adapted screenplays before a separate award for Best Original Screenplay was introduced. Sarah Y. Mason ( Little Women ) was

4400-482: The National University of Mexico , was a formative experience for her as an artist. She led workshops with her young, black undergraduate students, many of whom were eager to discuss the civil rights issues of that time. Through her interactions with her students, she reaffirmed her desire not only to live out her "crazy and queer" identity, but also to devote attention to the formal aspects of her craft as

4500-650: The Poetry Foundation . Her poems and prose largely deal with issues related to civil rights, feminism, lesbianism, illness, disability, and the exploration of Black female identity. Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934, in New York City, New York, to Caribbean immigrants Frederick Byron Lorde and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde. Her father, Frederick Byron Lorde (Byron), was born on April 20, 1898 in Barbados . Her mother, Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde,

4600-544: The "theory of difference", the idea that the binary opposition between men and women is overly simplistic; although feminists have found it necessary to present the illusion of a solid, unified whole, the category of women itself is full of subdivisions. Lorde identified issues of race, class, age and ageism, sex and sexuality and, later in her life, chronic illness and disability; the latter becoming more prominent in her later years as she lived with cancer. She wrote of all of these factors as fundamental to her experience of being

4700-599: The Afro-German movement was the focus of the 2012 documentary by Dagmar Schultz. Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984–1992 was accepted by the Berlin Film Festival , Berlinale, and had its World Premiere at the 62nd Annual Festival in 2012. The film has gone on to film festivals around the world, and continued to be viewed at festivals until 2018. The documentary has received seven awards, including Winner of

4800-420: The Afro-German movement. What began as a few friends meeting in a friend's home to get to know other black people, turned into what is now known as the Afro-German movement. Lorde inspired black women to refute the designation of " Mulatto ", a label which was imposed on them, and switch to the newly coined, self-given " Afro-German ", a term that conveyed a sense of pride. Lorde inspired Afro-German women to create

4900-763: The Best Documentary Audience Award 2014 at the 15th Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival , the Gold Award for Best Documentary at the International Film Festival for Women, Social Issues, and Zero Discrimination , and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Barcelona International LGBT Film Festival . Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years revealed the previous lack of recognition that Lorde received for her contributions towards

5000-717: The Cuban revolution had truly changed racism and the status of lesbians and gays there. In 1984, Lorde started a visiting professorship in West Berlin at the Free University of Berlin . She was invited by FU lecturer Dagmar Schultz who had met her at the UN "World Women's Conference" in Copenhagen in 1980. During her time in Germany, Lorde became an influential part of the then-nascent Afro-German movement. Together with

5100-416: The Master's House", Lorde attacked what she believed was underlying racism within feminism, describing it as unrecognized dependence on the patriarchy . She argued that, by denying difference in the category of women, white feminists merely furthered old systems of oppression and that, in so doing, they were preventing any real, lasting change. Her argument aligned white feminists who did not recognize race as

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5200-781: The Outstanding Independent Motion Picture Award at the NAACP Image Awards, and the Outstanding Film –Limited Release Award at the GLAAD Media Award in 2012. Pariah has been compared to the written work of Audre Lorde , specifically Zami: a New Spelling of My Name . Both forms provide a different take on the lived experiences of young Black lesbian women in a way that gives the characters depth and power. Both stories of identity, they are not only diversifying

5300-521: The Sundance Channel. The film follows her American-born, 80-year-old grandmother, Amma, as she returns to Monrovia, Liberia to rebuild her home and community. She had barely escaped the devastating Liberian Civil War only a decade earlier. Rees completed development and filming of her debut feature film, Pariah , which she has described as semi-autobiographical. In graduate school Rees interned for Spike Lee, whom she got to executive produce

5400-499: The United States, Lorde famously said: Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference -- those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older -- know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle

5500-805: The award was known as the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium. The Best Adapted Screenplay category has been a part of the Academy Awards since their inception. The first person to win twice in this category was Joseph L. Mankiewicz , who won the award in two consecutive years, 1949 and 1950. Others to win twice in this category include George Seaton , Robert Bolt (who also won in consecutive years), Francis Ford Coppola , Mario Puzo , Alvin Sargent , Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Michael Wilson , Alexander Payne and Christopher Hampton . Payne won both awards as part of

5600-489: The characters audiences enjoy in media, but also providing an authentic expression of these lives. In 2015, Rees' film Bessie premiered on HBO , starring Queen Latifah as the iconic singer Bessie Smith . The film was well received by critics. It also won four Primetime Emmy Awards , including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie . Rees was nominated for Outstanding Directing for

5700-420: The distinguished Thomas Hunter chair. As a queer Black woman, she was an outsider in a white-male dominated field and her experiences in this environment deeply influenced her work. New fields such as African American studies and women's studies advanced the topics that scholars were addressing and garnered attention to groups that had previously been rarely discussed. With this newfound academic environment, Lorde

5800-433: The erotic as a compass to identify what holds value in women's lives. Furthermore, Lorde criticizes the idea of compulsory heterosexuality and the idea that women's happiness will come through marriage, god, or religion. The idea of the erotic will empower women to not settle for what is conventionally expected or safe leaning into the idea of resisting patriarchal values put in place over women and their sexuality. Lorde sees

5900-525: The exploration of her sexuality. HBO 's Bessie (2015), also written and directed by Rees, explores the sexual identity of blues singer Bessie Smith . Rees also described the protagonist of her latest project, The Kyd's Exquisite Follies as androgynous, again connecting her own experience of sexuality to her filmmaking. Rees's identity as a Black woman is also very prevalent in her films, as Black women are extremely central in her films, such as Pariah (2011), Mudbound (2017), Bessie (2015), and

6000-421: The extent that, "If asked how she was feeling, Audre would reply by reciting a poem." Around the age of twelve, she began writing her own poetry and connecting with others at her school who were considered "outcasts", as she felt she was. Raised Catholic , Lorde attended parochial schools before moving on to Hunter College High School , a secondary school for intellectually gifted students. Poet Diane di Prima

6100-429: The film. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival . Lisa Schwartzman of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "In her fearless, world-here-I-am! debut Pariah , writer-director Dee Rees demonstrates, with simplicity and verve, that there's no substitute for authenticity". Pariah explores the complexities of religion, politics and socioeconomic class within and surrounding a Black family. The short film version of Pariah

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6200-403: The first African-American woman to direct a film for which an actor or actress was nominated for an Academy Award. A lesser-known project of Rees' is the show Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams , where Rees was given the chance to engage with the many emotions looming around the election of Donald Trump, and manipulate them within a sci-fi context, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime . Rees

6300-454: The first African-American writing duo to win; Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott ( BlacKkKlansman ) are the second, although their co-writers, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel, are both white. James Ivory ( Call Me by Your Name ) is the oldest person to receive the award at age 89. Charlie Wachtel ( BlacKkKlansman ) is the youngest at age 32. Taika Waititi ( Jojo Rabbit )

6400-592: The first siblings to win in this category. James Goldman ( The Lion in Winter ) and William Goldman ( All the President's Men ) are the first siblings to win for separate films. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen ( No Country for Old Men ) are the third winning siblings. Mario Puzo is the one of two writers whose work has been adapted and resulted in two wins. Puzo's novel The Godfather resulted in wins in 1972 and 1974 for himself and Francis Ford Coppola . The other

6500-500: The first time in her writing: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1974, From a Land Where Other People Live ( Broadside Press ) shows Lorde's personal struggles with identity and anger at social injustice. The volume deals with themes of anger, loneliness, and injustice, as well as what it means to be a black woman, mother, friend, and lover. 1974 saw

6600-622: The first woman to win for adaptation from previously established material; she shared the award with her husband, Victor Heerman . They are also the first of two married couples to win in this category;  Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh ( The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ) are the others. Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney ( The Story of Louis Pasteur ) were the first to win for adapting their own work. Philip G. Epstein and Julius J. Epstein ( Casablanca ) are

6700-667: The highest purchase of the festival, being bought for $ 12.5 million by Netflix . Mudbound was shot in New Orleans over 28 days in the summer of 2016. The film tells the story of two families in the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s. The McAllan family is white and their neighbors, the Jacksons, are black. The Jacksons are sharecroppers who have a connection to the land, while the McAllans are a middle-class family that own

6800-402: The inherent problems within society by saying, "racism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance. Sexism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby the right to dominance. Ageism. Heterosexism. Elitism. Classism." Lorde finds herself among some of these "deviant" groups in society, which set the tone for

6900-401: The institutional milieu of black feminist and black lesbian feminist scholars ... and within the context of conferences sponsored by white feminist academics, Lorde stood out as an angry, accusatory, isolated black feminist lesbian voice". The criticism was not one-sided: many white feminists were angered by Lorde's brand of feminism. In her 1984 essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle

7000-443: The labels put on them by society. The film also educates people on the history of racism in Germany. This enables viewers to understand how Germany reached this point in history and how the society developed. Through her promotion of the study of history and her example of taking her experiences in her stride, she influenced people of many different backgrounds. The film documents Lorde's efforts to empower and encourage women to start

7100-568: The large publishing house behind it – Norton – helped introduce her to a wider audience. The volume includes poems from both The First Cities and Cables to Rage , and it unites many of the themes Lorde would become known for throughout her career: her rage at racial injustice, her celebration of her black identity, and her call for an intersectional consideration of women's experiences. Lorde followed Coal up with Between Our Selves (also in 1976) and Hanging Fire (1978). In Lorde's volume The Black Unicorn (1978), she describes her identity within

7200-683: The late 1980s, she also helped establish Sisterhood in Support of Sisters (SISA) in South Africa to benefit black women who were affected by apartheid and other forms of injustice. In 1985, Audre Lorde was a part of a delegation of black women writers who had been invited to Cuba . The trip was sponsored by The Black Scholar and the Union of Cuban Writers. She embraced the shared sisterhood as black women writers. They visited Cuban poets Nancy Morejon and Nicolas Guillen . They discussed whether

7300-501: The master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support. Lorde had several films that highlighted her journey as an activist in the 1980s and 1990s. The Berlin Years: 1984–1992 documented Lorde's time in Germany as she led Afro-Germans in

7400-733: The most radical and daring ideas." Sister Outsider also elaborates Lorde's challenge to European-American traditions. The Cancer Journals (1980) and A Burst of Light (1988) both use non-fiction prose, including essays and journal entries, to bear witness to, explore, and reflect on Lorde's diagnosis, treatment, recovery from breast cancer, and ultimately fatal recurrence with liver metastases. In both works, Lorde deals with Western notions of illness, disability, treatment, cancer and sexuality, and physical beauty and prosthesis , as well as themes of death, fear of mortality, survival, emotional healing, and inner power. Lorde's deeply personal book Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), subtitled

7500-444: The mythos of African female deities of creation, fertility, and warrior strength. This reclamation of African female identity both builds and challenges existing Black Arts ideas about pan-Africanism . While writers like Amiri Baraka and Ishmael Reed utilized African cosmology in a way that "furnished a repertoire of bold male gods capable of forging and defending an aboriginal Black universe," in Lorde's writing "that warrior ethos

7600-420: The new free movement of East Germans, she also more broadly and fundamentally decries the triumph of capitalist democratic freedoms and Western influences, demonstrating her deep skepticism about, and resistance to, the " Peaceful Revolution " that would lead to the transition of Communist East Germany to parliamentary liberal democracy, market capitalism, and ultimately German reunification . Lorde's impact on

7700-508: The only people who have won this award by using another full-length feature film as the credited source of the adaptation. Geoffrey S. Fletcher ( Precious ), John Ridley ( 12 Years a Slave ) and Cord Jefferson ( American Fiction ) are the only African-Americans to win solo in this category; Fletcher is also the first African-American to win in any writing category. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney ( Moonlight ) are

7800-921: The only winners whose respective films were not nominated for Best Picture . Noted novelists and playwrights nominated in this category include: George Bernard Shaw (who shared an award for an adaptation of his play Pygmalion ), Graham Greene , Tennessee Williams , Vladimir Nabokov , James Hilton , Dashiell Hammett , Raymond Chandler , Lillian Hellman , Irwin Shaw , James Agee , Norman Corwin , S. J. Perelman , Terence Rattigan , John Osborne , Robert Bolt , Harold Pinter , David Mamet , Larry McMurtry , Arthur Miller , John Irving , David Hare , Tony Kushner , August Wilson , Florian Zeller and Kazuo Ishiguro . Ted Elliott , Roger S. H. Schulman , Joe Stillman & Terry Rossio , writers of Shrek and Michael Arndt , John Lasseter , Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich , writers of Toy Story 3 , are as of 2020,

7900-537: The only writers to be nominated for an animated film. Scott Frank , James Mangold and Michael Green , writers of Logan , are the first writers to be nominated for a film based on superhero comic books (the X-Men ). Winners are listed first in colored row, followed by the other nominees. Audre Lorde Audre Lorde ( / ˈ ɔː d r i ˈ l ɔːr d / AW -dree LORD ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde ; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992)

8000-447: The oppression of others because expecting a marginalized group to educate the oppressors is the continuation of racist, patriarchal thought. She explains that this is a major tool utilized by oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns. She concludes that to bring about real change, we cannot work within the racist, patriarchal framework because change brought about in that will not remain. Also in Sister Outsider

8100-555: The public with forms of women-based media. Lorde taught in the Education Department at Lehman College from 1969 to 1970, then as a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (part of the City University of New York , CUNY) from 1970 to 1981. There, she fought for the creation of a black studies department. In 1981, she went on to teach at her alma mater, Hunter College (also CUNY), as

8200-496: The release of New York Head Shop and Museum , which gives a picture of Lorde's New York through the lenses of both the civil rights movement and her own restricted childhood: stricken with poverty and neglect and, in Lorde's opinion, in need of political action. Despite the success of these volumes, it was the release of Coal in 1976 that established Lorde as an influential voice in the Black Arts Movement , and

8300-515: The scope and ability for change to be instigated when examining problems through a racist, patriarchal lens. She insists that women see differences between other women not as something to be tolerated, but something that is necessary to generate power and to actively "be" in the world. This will create a community that embraces differences, which will ultimately lead to liberation. Lorde elucidates, "Divide and conquer, in our world, must become define and empower." Also, people must educate themselves about

8400-433: The sexualized meaning it often holds in mainstream society. She proposes that the Erotic needs to be explored and experienced wholeheartedly, because it exists not only in reference to sexuality and the sexual, but also as a feeling of enjoyment, love, and thrill that is felt towards any task or experience that satisfies women in their lives, be it reading a book or loving one's job. She dismisses "the false belief that only by

8500-532: The silence will choke us anyway, so we might as well speak the truth." Lorde writes that we can learn to speak even when we are afraid. In Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference , Lorde emphasizes the importance of educating others. However, she stresses that in order to educate others, one must first be educated. Empowering people who are doing the work does not mean using privilege to overstep and overpower such groups; but rather, privilege must be used to hold door open for other allies. Lorde describes

8600-414: The status quo and what "not to be" in society. Lorde argues that women feel pressure to conform to their "oneness" before recognizing the separation among them due to their "manyness", or aspects of their identity. She stresses that this behavior is exactly what "explains feminists' inability to forge the kind of alliances necessary to create a better world." In relation to non- intersectional feminism in

8700-436: The suppression of the erotic or conformity to heterosexual norms as a form of control over women. In order to assume control over oneself, she urges women to reclaim the erotic and assert control. She erases the erotic differences that lie between varying sexualities in order to promote these desires as a creative force for revolutionary change. Lorde set out to confront issues of racism in feminist thought. She maintained that

8800-442: The suppression of the erotic within our lives and consciousness can women be truly strong. But that strength is illusory, for it is fashioned within the context of male models of power." She explains how patriarchal society has misnamed it and used it against women, causing women to fear it. Women also fear it because the erotic is powerful and a deep feeling. Women must share each other's power rather than use it without consent, which

8900-499: The theories of intersectionality. Lorde focused her discussion of difference not only on differences between groups of women but between conflicting differences within the individual. "I am defined as other in every group I'm part of," she declared. Audre Lorde states that "the outsider, both strength and weakness. Yet without community there is certainly no liberation, no future, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between me and my oppression". She described herself both as

9000-552: The women of Germany to speak up instead of fight back. Her impact on Germany reached more than just Afro-German women; Lorde helped increase awareness of intersectionality across racial and ethnic lines. In December 1989, the month after the fall of the Berlin Wall , Lorde wrote her poem "East Berlin 1989" conveying her views of this historic event. In the poem, while Lorde voices her alarm about increased violent racism against Afro-Germans and other Black people in Berlin due to

9100-719: Was a classmate and friend. She graduated in 1951. While attending Hunter, Lorde published her first poem in Seventeen magazine after her school's literary journal rejected it for being inappropriate. Also in high school, Lorde participated in poetry workshops sponsored by the Harlem Writers Guild , but noted that she always felt like somewhat of an outcast from the Guild. She felt she was not accepted because she "was both crazy and queer but [they thought] I would grow out of it all." Zami places her father's death from

9200-431: Was also politically active in civil rights , anti-war , and feminist movements . In 1968, Lorde published The First Cities , her first volume of poems. It was edited by Diane di Prima , a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. The First Cities has been described as a "quiet, introspective book", and Dudley Randall , a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave

9300-436: Was an American writer, professor , philosopher , intersectional feminist , poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet" who dedicated her life and talents to confronting different forms of injustice, as she believed there could be "no hierarchy of oppressions" among "those who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children." As

9400-546: Was born in 1902 on the island Carriacou in Grenada . Lorde's mother was of mixed ancestry but passed as Spanish , which was a source of pride for her family. Lorde's father was darker than the Belmar family liked, and they only allowed the couple to marry because of Byron's charm, ambition, and persistence. After their immigration, the new family settled in Harlem , a diverse neighborhood in upper Manhattan, New York . Lorde

9500-457: Was characterized by "tough love" and strict adherence to family rules. Lorde's difficult relationship with her mother figured prominently in her later poems, such as Coal ' s "Story Books on a Kitchen Table." As a child, Lorde struggled with communication, and came to appreciate the power of poetry as a form of expression. She even described herself as thinking in poetry. She memorized a great deal of poetry, and would use it to communicate, to

9600-458: Was in eighth grade. Born as Audrey Geraldine Lorde, she chose to drop the "y" from her first name while still a child, explaining in Zami: A New Spelling of My Name that she was more interested in the artistic symmetry of the "e"-endings in the two side-by-side names "Audre Lorde" than in spelling her name the way her parents had intended. Lorde's relationship with her parents was difficult from

9700-515: Was initially a thesis project done by Dee Rees in film school. It was difficult to receive funding for the feature film, and the process took about five years to reach completion. The format and content changed significantly from the short film to the feature film. The transition from short film to feature film meant it needed to be more accessible for a wider audience in order to make money. This accessibility reached new audiences and sparked new conversations that were focused on blackness and sexuality in

9800-416: Was inspired by the realistic directorial style of Cassavetes , and the cinematographer Bradford Young 's organic style on the television show Friday Night Lights . As with Rees's first breakout feature, Pariah (2011), Dee Rees pulls much of her directorial influence from her own life. Rees also cites her own life experiences in the protagonist of her newest project, The Kyd's Exquisite Follies . As

9900-579: Was inspired to not only write poetry but also essays and articles about queer, feminist, and African American studies. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga , she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press , the first U.S. publisher for women of color. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992. In 1981, Lorde was among the founders of the Women's Coalition of St. Croix, an organization dedicated to assisting women who have survived sexual abuse and intimate partner violence . In

10000-464: Was the youngest of three daughters, her older sisters named Phyllis and Helen Lorde. Lorde was nearsighted to the point of being legally blind , so she grew up listening her mother's stories about the West Indies rather than reading them. At the age of four, she learned to talk while she learned to read, and her mother taught her to write at around the same time. She wrote her first poem when she

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