Audre Lorde: The Voice of the Marginalized

Audre Lorde is remembered today as one of the most important writers of the Equal Rights and LGBTQI movements. She was multi-talented, garnering great success as an essayist. She fought for social justice in the United States and worldwide through teaching, writing, and activism and has inspired a generation of poets to follow in her footsteps. Her works would inspire individuals to find a sense of liberation in themselves. Audre Lorde’s poetry earned her many accolades, but she was also celebrated for her essays. She won the National Book Award in 1988 with her collection of essays, A Burst of Light.

Life Facts

• Audre Lorde was born in New York, New York in February of 1934.
• Lorde’s first book of poetry was published in 1968 and was titled The First Cities.
• Lorde met her life partner, Francis Clayton, in 1972.
• She passed away in November of 1992 from liver cancer.
• Lorde is now considered a central figure of the equal rights and LGBTQI movements.

Interesting Facts

• Her full birth name was Audrey Geraldine Lorde.
• She wrote her first poems by the age of twelve.
• Audre Lorde helped to fund the Women’s Coalition of St. Croix.
• From a Land Where Other People Live was nominated for a National Book Award.
• She published The Cancer Journals, which detailed her own struggle with breast cancer.

Famous Poems

• ‘Power’ is one of her best-known pieces of poetry. In it, she addresses the justice system, police brutality, and white supremacy. The poem was inspired by the murder of a ten-year-old black boy named Sean Bell and the acquittal of his murderer, Thomas Shea, a New York City cop. Lorde described how, after hearing the news on the radio, she had to pull her car over. The poem addresses his murder and uses disturbing images of violence and death to address rhetoric around race.
• ‘Hanging Fire’ is told from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old girl. She worries about how she looks, what others think of her, and her relationship with her mother. She is filled with worries, some of them mundane, others more serious. She wishes that she could talk to her mother about any of them, but the “door” to her mother’s bedroom is closed.
• ‘A Litany for Survival’ is a four stanza poem in which Lorde describes the lives of those who do not have time to dream, those who must fight to survive day to day. There is a part of the population, the speaker says, who live at the shoreline and suffer continuously with “crucial” choices. They do not have the luxury of time to dream because the pressing concerns of the moment are more important.
• ‘A Woman Speaks’ is a moving piece of poetry in which Lorde describes the inconsistent ways that women are treated, especially Black women. She also alludes to her own battle with her identity and how she is seen outside of society’s norms. Throughout the poem, she makes declarative statements about her own worth and power. In the poem, Lorde seeks to confirm her own experience and that of all Black women.
• ‘Movement Song’ is a love poem in which Lorde describes the process of losing an important love and the events that spiral out from that loss. She taps into universal experiences of heartbreak while also suggesting that a new future is on the way. There is hope in the midst of sorrow.

Early Life

Audre Lorde was born in Manhattan, New York, New York in February of 1934. Her full birth name was Audrey Geraldine Lorde, and her parents were Caribbean immigrants from Grenada who settled in Harlem. Lorde was born with severe nearsightedness, so much so that she had trouble seeing at all. From a young age, she began to learn to talk at the same time she learned to read. This corresponded with her mother teaching her how to write. Lorde did not have a great relationship with her parents. Her mother was a difficult person to get along with, often expressing distrust in those with darker skin than her own.

It was poetry that gave Lorde the ability to express herself. She was able to memorize and recite entire pieces of poetry at a young age. By the time she was twelve, she had written her first sections of verse. As a young woman, she attended Hunter College High School and had been at Catholic schools beforehand. This institution was set out as a school for gifted children. She graduated in 1951. During this time period, she was able to publish her first poem in Seventeen magazine. It had initially been rejected from her school’s literary journal for being inappropriate.

Early Career and Relationships

In 1954, she spent a year at the National University of Mexico. She would later cite this period as being that which affirmed her identity as a poet and lesbian woman. The next years of her life were spent at Hunter College. She worked as a librarian throughout the 1960s until she graduated with a BA in 1959. Lorde later earned her MLS, or master’s degree, in library science from Columbia University in 1961. After this, Lorde would work as a librarian in a number of public schools in New York.

It was also around this time that Lorde married Edwin Rollins, a gay man with whom she would have two children, Elizabeth and Jonathan. The couple divorced in 1970. Lorde was to meet her long-time partner, Frances Clayton, two years later.

Writing Career and Relationships

Her first volume of poems was published in 1968 and was titled The First Cities. It was also during this period that she was the writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. While there, she led workshops and discussions with young students about civil rights. She would find her love of teaching during this time. Her books Cables to Rage and From a Land Where Other People Live soon followed. The latter was nominated for a National Book Award. After her time in Mississippi, she made a home for herself on Staten Island. She was writing and teaching and soon became an associate of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press. This is a nonprofit organization that publishes women-based media.

From 1969 to 1970, she taught at Lehman College and then went on to John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A year later, she was in the role of professor of English at Hunter College in New York City. At this same time, she helped to found the Women’s Coalition of St. Croix. This organization was dedicated to the care of women who had survived sexual abuse, either by strangers or partners.

The 1970s and 1980s were a prolific period for Lorde. In 1974, she published New York Head Shop and Museum. It was followed by Coal and The Black Unicorn. These works are noted for their themes of protest and resistance. The poems called for social and racial justice. These are the main themes that would become integral to Lorde’s legacy as a central figure of several equal rights movements— from second-wave feminism to LGBTQ equality.

Audre Lorde also published works of prose. One of the most important of these is The Cancer Journals that detailed her struggle with breast cancer and mastectomy. An American Library Association’s Gay Caucus Book of the Year Award was awaiting her in 1981 as a reward for her work. In 1984, Lorde embarked on an important residence in Berlin. She had been invited to teach in West Berlin at the Free University. 

Her time in Germany saw her become an essential part of the Afro-German movement. She helped pioneer this movement in its entirety, even coining in the phrase “Afro-German.” Through the new unity that this community experienced, they increased societal awareness of racial problems throughout West Berlin. 

It was in 1982 that Lorde published her novel Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, which was met with critical acclaim.

In the late 1980s, Lorde and other writers founded the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. A printing press dedicated to extending the reach of black feminist authors. Cherrie Moraga and Barbara Smith were alongside her.

Lorde also became known for her influence in South Africa during apartheid, setting up Support of Sisters, an organization that gave black women in South Africa a voice. She would continue giving support until her death.

Later Life and  Death

As her reputation as a writer and advocate for marginalized groups grew, she was invited to Cuba alongside a group of black women writers. The group visited with native Cuban poets and carried on discussions about the state of racism and gay rights in the country. From 1991 until her death in 1992, Audre Lorde was the poet laureate of New York and elected to the American Poets Corner. She was inducted into the fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. She passed away in November of that year from liver cancer.

Influence from other Poets

Audre Lorde was notably influenced by writers such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Keats, and Helen Margaret.

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