This being black history month and all, I figured I'd go beyond the obvious icons (Martin, Malcom, Rosa, Harriett) and profile those that are usually overlooked (i.e. black gays and lesbians). One of those individuals is Audre Lorde, a woman who was, in her own words, a "black, lesbian, warrior, mother, poet."
Born Audrey Geraldine Lorde in 1934 in New York City to Caribbean immigrants, Lorde was nearsighted almost to the point of being legally blind. However, that didn't stop her from learning to read, write and talk at four years old, and composing her first poem in her early teens. She changed her name to Audre, saying that she liked the artistic quality of both her names ending in "e."
While attending Hunter College in the 1950s, Lorde worked a series of jobs, including a factory worker, ghost writer and social worker. According to Wikipedia.com, "In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of Mexico, a period she described as a time of affirmation and renewal: she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as a lesbian and poet. On her return to New York, Lorde went to college, worked as a librarian, continued writing and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village."
Lorde was married to attorney Edwin Rollins. The pair had two children before divorcing in 1970. She numerous relationships with women, becoming romantically involved with her partner Gloria Joseph until her death from breast cancer in 1992.
Her poety, regularly published by black literary magazines including Langston Hughes' New Negro Poets, tackled subjects such as love, motherhood, betrayal, and homosexuality. Lorde wrote about her own sexuality in the poem "Martha." Heavily involved in the civil rights, anti-war and feminist movements, Lorde criticized the women's movement for what she saw as a focus solely on the experience of white, middle class women, and its exclusion of differences among women such as race and sexuality. The concept of difference was a recurring theme in her work. "I am defined as other in every group I'm part of", she declared. "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."
Some Audre Lorde's famous quotations are below:
"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive."
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."
“When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”