Eighteen days into Black History Month a queen was brought into this universe in the year of 1934. An American feminist, womanist, writer, and civil rights activist, Audre Geraldine Lorde was born far ahead of her time, some would call her the jack of all trades. Her emotional expression and technical mastery shined through in her writing. Her poems mostly dealt with issues related to lesbianism, civil rights, feminism, and the exploration of black female identity. Lorde was exactly what HER IMAGE is all about!
Lorde was born in New York City to her mother, Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde and father, Frederick Byron Lorde who were originally from the Caribbean but soon settled into Harlem. Audre was to the point of being legally blind; however, this did not set her back by any means. By the age of four Lorde was reading and writing. She had written her first poem at the age five. Audre was born "Audrey" however she dropped the "y" in her name at an early age because she didn't like the way the "y" hung below the line. Not only did she connect with words very young but realized and acknowledged the fact that just a letter could mean so much more.
Due to the fact that both of her parents spent most of their time maintaining their real estate business, Lorde's relationship with them was difficult. When the time came for them to spend time together it was usually short lived and her parents would seem emotionally distant. Because of this, Lorde struggled with communication, which fuels her powerful expressions through her poetry.
In 1951 Lorde graduated from Hunter College High School which was a school for gifted students. While in attendance at Hunter College High, she published her first poem in Seventeen magazine! This was after her school rejected her poem and deemed it inappropriate and unprofessional. Only fifteen years and she had a published poem under her belt, its no secret that Audre was a complete bad-ass!
One poem that stood out to me the most was A Woman Speaks. One because of the title and two because of the content.
A Woman Speaks:
- BY AUDRE LORDE
Moon marked and touched by sun
my magic is unwritten
but when the sea turns back
it will leave my shape behind.
I seek no favor
untouched by blood
unrelenting as the curse of love
permanent as my errors
or my pride
I do not mix
love with pity
nor hate with scorn
and if you would know me
look into the entrails of Uranus
where the restless oceans pound.
I do not dwell
within my birth nor my divinities
who am ageless and half-grown
and still seeking
my sisters
witches in Dahomey
wear me inside their coiled cloths
as our mother did
mourning.
I have been woman
for a long time
beware my smile
I am treacherous with old magic
and the noon's new fury
with all your wide futures
promised
I am
woman
and not white.
The last three lines apologetically claim the authority to SPEAK ALOUD AND PROUD, which has customarily been denied to the oppressed. Lorde writes about fear, racial and sexual oppression, personal survival, anger and urban neglect. She did not let the obstacles that were along her path define the woman that she became and that speaks volumes!
Audre was beyond intelligent! She earned her BA from Hunter College and MLS from Columbia University. She worked as a librarian throughout the 1960's. Lorde was also the mother of two children whom she had with her husband at the time Edward Rollins who was a white and gay man. The couple divorced in 1970 and two years later she fell in love and met her life partner Frances Clayton.
Lorde's early collections of poetry include The First Cities, Cables to Rage, and From a Land Where Other People Live, which was nominated for a National Book Award! Her later collections included The Black Unicorn and I Have a Duty.
This woman turned the negative in her life into a positive by any means necessary! She was later diagnosed with breast cancer and wrote about her struggles in a collection called the Cancer Journals, which won the Gay Caucus Book of the Year award in 1981! Sadly, in 1992 she passed away from cancer; however, her legacy still lives on to this day. This article cannot begin to measure up to all that Audre Lorde has done throughout her lifetime and if it did this Womanist edition would be just about her!
- Michelle Wynn