07/02/2022
Audre Lorde is one of the greatest influences to my poetry, speaking with words what the mind and heart feel.
The Poetry Foundation immortalizes Audre Lorde as, “A self-described ‘black, le***an, mother, warrior, poet,’ Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic schools before graduating from Hunter High School and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still a student there. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black Women Writers: ‘I used to speak in poetry. I would read poems, and I would memorize them. People would say, well what do you think, Audre. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. And when I couldn’t find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that’s what started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen.’”
The Poetry Foundation goes on to elaborate that, “‘Her poetry, and “indeed all of her writing,’ according to contributor Joan Martin in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, ‘rings with passion, sincerity, perception, and depth of feeling.’ Concerned with modern society’s tendency to categorize groups of people, Lorde fought the marginalization of such categories as “le***an” and “black woman.” She was central to many liberation movements and activist circles, including second-wave feminism, civil rights and Black cultural movements, and struggles for LGBTQ equality.“
If you are a poet, artist activist, q***r BIPOC individual, we have Audre Lorde to thank for paving the path for us to express ourselves unabashedly and proudly.
