Audre Lorde (1934–92,) born Audrey Geraldine Lorde, pseudonyms Gamba Adlsa and Rey Domini, was an American poet, feminist, librarian, essayist, autobiographer, and civil rights activist. She is celebrated for her passionate writings on lesbian feminism and sexual and racial issues.
Born to Grenadian parents in Harlem, New York City, Lorde was educated at Hunter College and Columbia University. She wrote poetry while working as a librarian at Town School in New York City. She also taught English at Hunter College.
Lorde published her first volume of poetry, The First Cities, in 1968. Her Cables to Rage (1970) challenged sexual and racial stereotypes. She politically combined interracial socialism with African-American cultural nationalism and was active in feminist and gay rights movements.
Lorde’s poetry includes From a Land Where Other People Live (1973; it introduced the use of African mythology for feminist purposes,) Between Ourselves (1976,) and Our Dead Behind Us (1986.)
Lorde also wrote several prose works, including The Cancer Journals (1980,) an account of her 14-year struggle with breast cancer, from which she died. A final volume of poetry, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance (1993,) was published posthumously.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Audre Lorde
While we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Anxiety, Fear
Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Feelings
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Friendship
Revolution is not a onetime event.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Revolution
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Ideas
I am still learning—how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Being True to Yourself
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Fear
When I care to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision—then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Vision
Even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded…
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Victory
Our visions begin with our desires.
—Audre Lorde
Topics: Desire
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