The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde

Lines of her poetry often tumble about in my head and are empowering anthems that can get anyone through even the toughest days. Of any book of poetry I own, this might be the one I have most dogeared and underlined as she is so immensely quotable. The self-proclaimed ‘black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet’ spent her life confronting injustices and is still a cornerstone of intersectional theory, speaking out against racism, homophobia, sexism, classism and more. Lorde (1934-1982) is a monumental figure in both Black and Feminist writing and activism. ‘ As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring ideas’. ‘ Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought,’ wrote Lorde. Often best known for her speeches and essays in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, she was also a phenomenal poet and I would like very much for everyone to read her.

Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.Īudre Lorde is the Patron Saint of activism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S.

It is particularly noteworthy for the poem 'Martha', in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: 'e shall love each other here if ever at all.' Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde 'does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone.' Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. 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. Audre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist.

The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde