Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

“…we’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.”

Image © Dagmar Schultz.

Audre Lorde is a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” whose contribution to the culture includes exposing the injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia within modern day society. Through her work, she also explores conflicting differences within the individual.

Lorde’s career began with a rejected poem from her high school’s literary journal, that ended up being published in Seventeen magazine! Her words would go on to inspire countless liberation movements, many of which she played a central role in; second-wave feminism, civil rights and other Black cultural movements, as well as struggles for GLBTQ equality.

“Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future,” Lorde said in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.

She was born February 18th, 1934 in New York City to West Indian (immigrant) parents. Throughout her childhood, Lorde’s relationship with both of her parents was difficult. Her mother in particular - who could pass as white - was “deeply suspicious” of darker skinned people. Today, many would refer to this as colorism.

Lorde, who was darker than her mother, later wrote about these experiences in works such as Coal (1976). One could say that her childhood experiences shaped her life’s work entirely. Her writing is the perfect mixture of prose, poetry, and her love of activism. And it is quite obvious through her personal life, as well as her professional career, that everything she did was a political statement.

In 1962, Lorde married attorney Edwin Rollins, who was a white, gay man and they had two children together before divorcing in 1970. During her tenure as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, she met Frances Clayton, a white lesbian and professor of psychology who was to be her romantic partner until 1989. Her life partner, Black feminist Dr. Gloria I. Joseph, resided with Lorde on Joseph's native land of St. Croix. Together they founded several organizations such as the Che Lumumba School for Truth, Women's Coalition of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, and Doc Loc Apiary.

Although Lorde wrote about many different issues that affected society at large, it was her perspective as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” that was revolutionary. Especially during her time.

“I am a lesbian woman of Color whose children eat regularly because I work in a university. If their full bellies make me fail to recognize my commonality with a woman of Color whose children do not eat because she cannot find work, or who has no children because her insides are rotted from home abortions and sterilization; if I fail to recognize the lesbian who chooses not to have children, the woman who remains closeted because her homophobic community is her only life support, the woman who chooses silence instead of another death, the woman who is terrified lest my anger trigger the explosion of hers; if I fail to recognize them as other faces of myself, then I am contributing not only to each of their oppressions but also to my own, and the anger which stands between us, then must be used for clarity and mutual empowerment, not for evasion by guilt or for further separation.” - Audre Lorde, The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism

There is much to say about, and learn from Audre Lorde. More than could ever fit in a single blog post. By her school of thought, perhaps understanding and excepting ourselves is where we start with changing the world for the better.

Black Pride: Audre Lorde