Her mother, Linda Belmar Lorde, had Grenadian and Portuguese. Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 19841992 was accepted by the Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale, and had its World Premiere at the 62nd Annual Festival in 2012. It meant being invisible. I've said this about poetry; I've said it about children. 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. FOLLOW NBC OUT ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM. One of her most notable efforts was her activist work with Afro-German women in the 1980s. ", Lorde, Audre. Lorde died of breast cancer in 1992. We must be able to come together around those things we share. After her first diagnosis, she wrote The Cancer Journals, which won the American Library Association Gay Caucus Book of the Year Award in 1981. [27][28] Instead of fighting systemic issues through violence, Lorde thought that language was a powerful form of resistance and encouraged the women of Germany to speak up instead of fight back. In "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference", Western European History conditions people to see human differences. Lorde was also a professor of English at John Jay College and Hunter College, where she held the prestigious post of Thomas Hunter Chair of Literature. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. And so began Lordes career as an activist-author, one who never shied away from difficult subjects, but instead, embraced them in all their complexity. In October 1980, Lorde mentioned on the phone to fellow activist and author Barbara Smith that they really need to do something about publishing. That same month, Smith organized a meeting with Lorde and other women who might be interested in starting a publishing company specifically for women writers of color. Well, in a sense I'm saying it about the very artifact of who I have been. In a keynote speech at the National Third-World Gay and Lesbian Conference on October 13, 1979, titled, "When will the ignorance end?" Carriacou is a small Grenadine island where her mother was born. When ignoring a problem does not work, they are forced to either conform or destroy. As the description in its finding aid states "The collection includes Lorde's books, correspondence, poetry, prose, periodical contributions, manuscripts, diaries, journals, video and audio recordings, and a host of biographical and miscellaneous material. She decided to share such a deeply personal story partly out of a sense of duty to break the silence surrounding breast cancer. And finally, we destroy each other's differences that are perceived as "lesser". 22224. The Audre Lorde Papers are held at Spelman College Archives in Atlanta. "Today we march," she said, "lesbians and gay men and our children, standing in our own names together with all our struggling sisters and brothers here and around the world, in the Middle East, in Central America, in the Caribbean and South Africa, sharing our commitment to work for a joint livable future. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. She married attorney Edwin Rollins in 1962, and the couple had two childrenElizabeth and Jonathan. Women must share each other's power rather than use it without consent, which is abuse. She graduated in 1951. [101], On May 10, 2022, 68th Street and Lexington Avenue by Hunter College was renamed "Audre Lorde Way."[102]. Lorde criticized privileged peoples habit of burdening the oppressed with the responsibility to teach the oppressors their mistakes, which she considered a constant drain of energy.. "[98] Held at John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies at Free University of Berlin (Freie Universitt), the Audre Lorde Archive holds correspondence and teaching materials related to Lorde's teaching and visits to Freie University from 1984 to 1992. [55], This fervent disagreement with notable white feminists furthered Lorde's persona as an outsider: "In 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". There, she fought for the creation of a black studies department. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media. Worldwide HQ. Lorde's mother was of mixed ancestry but could pass for Spanish,[5] which was a source of pride for her family. [46], The film documents Lorde's efforts to empower and encourage women to start the Afro-German movement. The title Zami, a Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers, paid homage to the bridge and field of women that made up Lordes life. As an activist-author, she never shied away from difficult subjects. Her second one, published in 1970, includes explicit references to love and an erotic relationship between two women. She contends that people have reacted in this matter to differences in sex, race, and gender: ignore, conform, or destroy. When Audrey was twelve, she changed her name to Audre to mirror the "e"-ending of her last name. In Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference, Lorde emphasizes the importance of educating others. In the same essay, she proclaimed, "now we must recognize difference among women who are our equals, neither inferior nor superior, and devise ways to use each others' difference to enrich our visions and our joint struggles"[38] Doing so would lead to more inclusive and thus, more effective global feminist goals. "[37] Sister Outsider also elaborates Lorde's challenge to European-American traditions. "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House. Profile. because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We chose our name because the kitchen is the center of the home, the place where women in particular work and communicate with each other, Smith wrote in 1989. Lorde followed Coal up with Between Our Selves (also in 1976) and Hanging Fire (1978). When asked by Kraft, "Do you see any development of the awareness about the importance of differences within the white feminist movement?" From 1991 until her death, she was the New York State Poet Laureate. "[72], A major critique of womanism is its failure to explicitly address homosexuality within the female community. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992. Audre Lorde [1] 1934-1992 Poet fiction and nonfiction writer, activist Daughter of Immigrants [2] . University of Minnesota, "Audre Lorde, 58, A Poet, Memoirist And Lecturer, Dies", Connexxus Women's Center/Centro de Mujeres, Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians, Amazones d'Hier, Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Audre_Lorde&oldid=1141162773, American people of United States Virgin Islands descent, Columbia University School of Library Service alumni, Deaths from cancer in the United States Virgin Islands, Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry winners, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 17:49. Six years later, she found out her breast cancer had metastasized in her liver. [24] During her time in Germany, Lorde became an influential part of the then-nascent Afro-German movement. At Columbia, she met Edwin Rollins, whom she married in 1962. She died of liver cancer, said a. [56], The criticism was not one-sided: many white feminists were angered by Lorde's brand of feminism. The old definitions have not served us". [9], 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. Lorde, Audre. ROLLINS--Edwin A., attorney and public defender, died August 17, 2012 at the age of 81. Somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. Sycomp, A Technology Company, Inc. 950 Tower Lane Suite 1785 Foster City, CA 94404 USA During that time, in addition to writing and teaching she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.[18]. Dr. In I Am Your Sister, she urged activists to take responsibility for learning this, even if it meant self-teaching, "which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future. Also in Sister Outsider is a short essay, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action". In The Master's Tools, she wrote that many people choose to pretend the differences between us do not exist, or that these differences are insurmountable, adding, "Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Associated With. [25], Lorde focused her discussion of difference not only on differences between groups of women but between conflicting differences within the individual. [33]:31, Her conception of her many layers of selfhood is replicated in the multi-genres of her work. In 1980, she published The Cancer Journals, a collection of contemporaneous diary entries and other writing that detailed her experience with the disease. In Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, her "biomythography" (a term coined by Lorde that combines "biography" and "mythology") she writes, "Years afterward when I was grown, whenever I thought about the way I smelled that day, I would have a fantasy of my mother, her hands wiped dry from the washing, and her apron untied and laid neatly away, looking down upon me lying on the couch, and then slowly, thoroughly, our touching and caressing each other's most secret places. She repeatedly emphasizes the need for community in the struggle to build a better world. It is also criticized for its lack of discussion of sexuality. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Her first volume of poems, . In 1977, Lorde became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). It was even illegal in some states. Lorde married Edwin Rollins, a white man, in 1962; they had a son and a daughter. "Lorde," writes the critic Carmen Birkle, "puts her emphasis on the authenticity of experience. She was a librarian in the New York public schools throughout the 1960s. In her novel Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Lorde focuses on how her many different identities shape her life and the different experiences she has because of them. [51], Lorde set out to confront issues of racism in feminist thought. The Audre Lorde collection at Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York contains audio recordings related to the March on Washington on October 14, 1979, which dealt with the civil rights of the gay and lesbian community as well as poetry readings and speeches. Around the 1960s, second-wave feminism became centered around discussions and debates about capitalism as a "biased, discriminatory, and unfair"[68] institution, especially within the context of the rise of globalization. Lorde reminded and cautioned the attendees, "There is a wonderful diversity of groups within this conference, and a wonderful diversity between us within those groups. She married attorney Edwin Rollins in 1962. The couple later divorced. There is no denying the difference in experience of black women and white women, as shown through example in Lorde's essay, but Lorde fights against the premise that difference is bad. [68] Audre Lorde was critical of the first world feminist movement "for downplaying sexual, racial, and class differences" and the unique power structures and cultural factors which vary by region, nation, community, etc.[69]. While there, she worked as a librarian, continued writing, and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village. . "[41] "People are taught to respect their fear of speaking more than silence, but ultimately, the silence will choke us anyway, so we might as well speak the truth." "[65], Lorde urged her readers to delve into and discover these differences, discussing how ignoring differences can lead to ignoring any bias and prejudice that might come with these differences, while acknowledging them can enrich our visions and our joint struggles. [32] Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years revealed the previous lack of recognition that Lorde received for her contributions towards the theories of intersectionality. After a long history of systemic racism in Germany, Lorde introduced a new sense of empowerment for minorities. Almost the entire audience rose. Edwin was a white man, and interracial marriage was uncommon at this time. Lorde, one of Hunter's most distinguished alumni, attended the college from 1954-1959, studying Library Science, and earning a Master's degree in that subject from Columbia University in 1961. 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. Cuba 1757 Piso:6 Dpto:b, 1426 Autonomous City of Buenos Aires - Argentina [47], Her writings are based on 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.[48]. Weve been taught that silence would save us, but it wont, Lorde once said. Aman, Y. K. R. (2016). Here are some fascinating facts about the woman behind the work. 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 lived with liver cancer for the next several years, and died from the disease on November 17, 1992, at age 58. Audrey Geraldine Lorde was born in Harlem on February 18, 1934, to parents who had emigrated from Grenada a decade earlier. Audre Lorde, a black feminist writer who became the poet laureate of New York State in 1991, died on Tuesday at her home on St. Croix. In this interview, Audre Lorde articulated hope for the next wave of feminist scholarship and discourse. pp. 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. She was not ashamed to claim her identity and used it to her own creative advantages. 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. Read More on The Sun Rollins was a. Personal identity is often associated with the visual aspect of a person, but as Lies Xhonneux theorizes when identity is singled down to just what you see, some people, even within minority groups, can become invisible. When she did see them, they were often cold or emotionally distant. In her 1984 essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House",[57] Lorde attacked what she believed was underlying racism within feminism, describing it as unrecognized dependence on the patriarchy. [16], 1974 saw 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:[2] stricken with poverty and neglect and, in Lorde's opinion, in need of political action.[16]. She maintained that 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. She shows us that personal identity is found within the connections between seemingly different parts of one's life, based in lived experience, and that one's authority to speak comes from this lived experience. Lorde inspired Afro-German women to create a community of like-minded people. "[43], In relation to non-intersectional feminism in the United States, Lorde famously said:[38][44]. [75], In 1962, Lorde married attorney Edwin Rollins, who was a white, gay man. [61] Nash cites Lorde, who writes: "I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives there. [79] She is quoted as saying: "What I leave behind has a life of its own. Help us build our profile of Audre Lorde and Edwin Rollins! However, Lorde emphasizes in her essay that differences should not be squashed or unacknowledged. Audre Lorde was a noted Afro-American writer, educationist, feminist, and civil rights activist. In 1980, Lorde, along with fellow writer Barbara Smith, founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, which published work by and about women of color, including Lordes book I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities (1986). Audre Lorde was a feminist, writer, librarian and civil rights activist born in New York to Caribbean immigrants on February 18 1934. When a poem of hers, Spring, was rejectedthe editor found its style too sensualist, la Romantic poetryshe decided to send it to Seventeen magazine instead. During this period, she worked as a public librarian in nearby Mount Vernon, New York. Lorde writes that women must "develop new definitions of power and new patterns of relating across difference. In an African naming ceremony before her death, she took the name Gamba Adisa, which means "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known.. Psychologically, people have been trained to react to discontentment by ignoring it. Lorde married attorney Edwin Rollins, who was a white, bisexual man, in 1962. In 1981, Lorde and a fellow writer friend, Barbara Smith founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press which was dedicated to helping other black feminist writers by provided resources, guidance and encouragement. "[34] Her refusal to be placed in a particular category, whether social or literary, was characteristic of her determination to come across as an individual rather than a stereotype. [72], She further explained that "we are working in a context of oppression and threat, the cause of which is certainly not the angers which lie between us, but rather that virulent hatred leveled against all women, people of color, lesbians and gay men, poor people against all of us who are seeking to examine the particulars of our lives as we resist our oppressions, moving towards coalition and effective action. Born a rebel, she never had easy relationship at home, developing friendship with a group of 'outcasts' at school. Lorde eventually became a librarian herself, earning a masters degree in library science from Columbia University in 1961. [16], Lorde's deeply personal book Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), subtitled a "biomythography", chronicles her childhood and adulthood. [64], Lorde's work also focused on the importance of acknowledging, respecting and celebrating our differences as well as our commonalities in defining identity. While there, she forged friendships with May Ayim, Ika Hgel-Marshall, Helga Emde, and other Black German feminists that would last until her death. Third-wave feminism emerged in the 1990s after calls for "a more differentiated feminism" by first-world women of color and women in developing nations, such as Audre Lorde, who maintained her critiques of first world feminism for tending to veer toward "third-world homogenization". Lorde herself stated that those interpretations were incorrect because identity was not so simply defined and her poems were not to be oversimplified. Shortly before Lorde's death in 1992, she adopted another moniker in an African naming ceremony: Gambda Adisa, for Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known., Before Lorde even started writing poetry, she was already using it to express herself. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. [11], Raised Catholic, Lorde attended parochial schools before moving on to Hunter College High School, a secondary school for intellectually gifted students. She has made lasting contributions in the fields of feminist theory, critical race studies and queer theory through her pedagogy and writing. She found that "the literature of women of Color [was] seldom included in women's literature courses and almost never in other literature courses, nor in women's studies as a whole"[38] and pointed to the "othering" of women of color and women in developing nations as the reason. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet," who "dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. [33]:1213 She described herself both as a part of a "continuum of women"[33]:17 and a "concert of voices" within herself. [58], 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.