80-512: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is a collection of essential essays and speeches written by Audre Lorde , a writer who focuses on the particulars of her identity: Black woman, lesbian, poet, activist, cancer survivor, mother, and feminist . This collection, now considered a classic volume of Lorde's most influential works of non-fiction prose, has had a groundbreaking impact in the development of contemporary feminist theories. In fifteen essays and speeches dating from 1976 to 1984, Lorde explores
160-545: 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
240-579: 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
320-470: 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
400-460: 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
480-408: A feminism that relies on a feminine primitivism and values feelings that are more intense and seemingly deep-rooted. 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) was an American writer, professor , philosopher , intersectional feminist , poet and civil rights activist. She
560-493: A feminist issue with white male slave-masters, describing both as "agents of oppression". Lorde held that the key tenets of feminism were that all forms of oppression were interrelated; creating change required taking a public stand; differences should not be used to divide; revolution is a process; feelings are a form of self-knowledge that can inform and enrich activism; and acknowledging and experiencing pain helps women to transcend it. Literary agent A literary agent
640-493: 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 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 ,
720-553: 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
800-588: 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
880-399: 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 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
SECTION 10
#1732771796927960-525: 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
1040-511: A new forward provided by scholar and essayist, Cheryl Clarke . The book is composed of essays and talks by Lorde, including the following: Sister Outsider is a groundbreaking essential contribution to Black feminism , Postcolonial feminism , gay and lesbian studies, critical psychology, black queer studies, African American studies, and feminist thought at large. The canonical work has been cited by renowned scholars like Patricia Hill Collins , Donna Haraway , and Sara Ahmed . The publication
1120-468: 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
1200-522: 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
1280-430: A projected publication date of May 31, 1984. She was the first major lesbian author the press was to sign, despite the firm's policy of not taking books represented by agents . Lorde expressed to her agent that she felt rushed into signing the contract that provided an advance against royalties of a mere $ 100. The book was ultimately a huge financial success for the firm. It was republished in 2007 by The Crossing Press with
1360-633: 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 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
1440-399: A racist, patriarchal society. In this charged collection, Lorde challenges sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and classism with determination. She propounds the recognition of difference as an empowering vehicle for action and creative change and emphasizes the necessity for applying these concepts to the next generation of feminism - a response to the current lacking thereof between women in
1520-572: A secondary school for intellectually gifted students. Poet Diane di Prima 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
1600-529: 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,
1680-456: A significant contribution to critical social theory. The paradoxical title of Sister Outsider expresses Lorde's commitment to her identity and the multiplicities gathering together to assemble her unique identity – multiplicities that often placed her "on the line", in a space that refused safety of an inside parameter, demonstrating Lorde's ability to embrace difficulty in the path to create change. Lorde informs readers through these essays that
SECTION 20
#17327717969271760-529: A single agent who represents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with senior partners, sub-agents, specialists in areas like foreign rights or licensed merchandise tie-ins, and clients numbering in the hundreds. Most agencies, especially smaller ones, specialize to some degree. They may represent—for example—authors of science fiction, mainstream thrillers and mysteries, children's books, romance, or highly topical nonfiction. Very few agents represent short stories or poetry. Legitimate agents and agencies in
1840-547: 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
1920-521: A vehicle for change. With meditative conscious reasoning, Lorde explores her misgivings for the widespread marginalization deeply-rooted in the United States' white patriarchal system, all the while, offering messages of hope. The essays in this landmark collection are extensively taught and have become a widespread area of academic analysis. Lorde's philosophical reasoning that recognizes oppressions as complex and interlocking designates her work as
2000-419: 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
2080-425: 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
2160-449: Is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers , theatrical producers , film producers , and film studios , and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists , screenwriters , and non-fiction writers. Reputable literary agents generally charge a commission and do not charge a fee upfront. The commission rate is generally 15%. Literary agencies can range in size from
2240-399: 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
2320-401: 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
2400-458: 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
2480-516: 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 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
Sister Outsider - Misplaced Pages Continue
2560-544: 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
2640-599: 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
2720-420: 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
2800-827: 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
2880-717: 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
2960-587: 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 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
3040-416: 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
3120-436: 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
3200-592: The United States, specifically through whiteness, maleness, youth, thinness, heterosexuality, Christianity, and financial security. While some reviewers claimed that the work is hard to identify with if they are not similar to Lorde, others refute this, claiming that Lorde uses a "flexible model of subject positioning" that allows readers of various backgrounds to determine points of similarity and difference, challenging their standard notions of selfhood and subjectivity . In The Man Question, Kathy Ferguson questions Lorde's employment of what she defines as "Cosmic Feminism",
3280-579: 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 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
Sister Outsider - Misplaced Pages Continue
3360-400: The belief that sensation is enough". We see here that Lorde draws our attention to the emotional experience of sexuality, and defines the erotic in a way that disconnects the typical male dominated interpretation. She continues to separate the erotic and pornographic by conveying the effect of power between the two. "But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents
3440-449: The complexities of intersectional identity, while explicitly drawing from her personal experiences of oppression to include sexism , heterosexism , racism , homophobia , classism , and ageism . The book examines a broad range of topics, including love, self-love, war, imperialism , police brutality , coalition building, violence against women, Black feminism , and movements towards equality that recognize and embrace differences as
3520-420: 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
3600-433: 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
3680-500: 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
3760-625: The formal aspects of her craft as 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
3840-444: The histories of westernized culture have conditioned inhabitants to view "human differences in simplistic opposition to each other" – good/bad, superior/inferior – and to always be suspicious of the latter. Instead, Lorde suggests, use differences as a catalyst for change. Throughout the collection, Lorde also emphasizes the use of poetry as a profound form of knowledge, a powerful tool for diagnosing and challenging power relations within
3920-402: 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
4000-401: 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
4080-443: 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
SECTION 50
#17327717969274160-598: The language to articulate differences and the complex nature of oppression. American professor and theorist Roderick Ferguson cites Sister Outsider as a critical influence in his book, Aberrations in Black, in which he coins the term Queer of Color Critique . Sister Outsider received a critical reception, as well, as the collection challenges readers' unacknowledged privileges and complicity in oppression. Negative reviewers tended to focus on how Sister Outsider caused them discomfort with confronting their guilt as individuals whose identities occupy dominant positions within
4240-568: 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
4320-445: The late 1970s and early 1980s, and provides with philosophical reasoning, messages of hope. In Sister Outsider , Lorde tasks herself with discerning the difference and meaning of the erotic and the pornographic. This is all within the context of sexuality, power dynamics, and queerness. As Lorde says in her text, "the erotic offers a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation, nor succumb to
4400-683: 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
4480-417: The mainstream feminist movement. Lorde also explores the fear and suspicion that arises among African American men and women, lesbians, feminists, and white women that ultimately creates an isolating experience for African American women - constructing a social institution that dehumanizes lives. Throughout these essays, Lorde confronts this problem of institutional dehumanization plaguing American culture during
4560-501: 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
4640-733: 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
4720-444: 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
4800-420: 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
4880-447: 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
SECTION 60
#17327717969274960-555: 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
5040-496: 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
5120-515: 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
5200-433: 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
5280-532: 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
5360-414: 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
5440-436: 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
5520-442: 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
5600-414: The suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling". After defining these two terms she relates them to her own identity as a Black lesbian feminist. The erotic in her eyes is not simply a physical experience or drive, it is a show of resilience in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and homophobic society. Lorde signed a contract with The Crossing Press on November 19, 1982 with
5680-499: 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
5760-552: 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
5840-514: 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 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
5920-431: 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
6000-616: 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, 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
6080-564: 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 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
6160-420: Was deeply suspicious of people with darker skin than hers (which Lorde had) and the outside world in general, 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
6240-579: 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
6320-546: Was met with overall "resounding praise". A reviewer for Publishers Weekly referred to the work as "an eye-opener". American author Barbara Christian called the collection, "another indication of the depth of analysis that black women writers are contributing to feminist thought." From this work, Lorde is said to have created a new critical social theory that understands oppressions as overlapping and interlocking, informed from her position as an outsider. She presented her arguments in an accessible manner that provided readers with
6400-482: 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 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
#926073