Audre Lorde (1934–1992)
Autore di Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Sull'Autore
An African American lesbian feminist critic and writer, Lorde was born in Harlem and educated at National University of Mexico, Hunter College, and Columbia University. She married in 1962 and divorced in 1970, after having two children. Lorde first came to critical attention with her poetry. Her mostra altro first poem was published in Seventeen magazine while she was in high school; it had been rejected by her high school newspaper because it was "too romantic" (Lorde considered her "mature" poetry, which focuses on her lesbian relationships, to be romantic also). Other early poems were published in many different journals, many of them under the pseudonym Rey Domini. Her first volume of poetry, "The First Cities," was published in 1968. Lorde then quit her job as head librarian at a school in New York City in order to devote her time to teaching and writing. She was a professor of English at Hunter College from 1980 until her untimely death from cancer in 1992. Although many of Lorde's poems are about love, many are about anger, particularly anger about racism, sexism, and homophobia in America. "The Brown Menace or Poem to the Survival of Roaches" likens African Americans to cockroaches---hated, feared, and poisoned by whites but survivors nevertheless. Other poems express a daughter's anger toward her mother; still others eschew anger for affirmation and inspiration, which are represented as coming from lesbian love and traditional African myths because, as Lorde has said, "the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house." Lorde is also well known for her prose. Her courageous account of her struggle with breast cancer and the mastectomy that she underwent is movingly chronicled in "The Cancer Journals" (1980), her first major prose publication. "Zami, a New Spelling of My Name" (1982) is, in Lorde's words, a "biomythography," combining history, biography, and myth. In "Zami," Lorde focuses on her developing lesbian identity and her response to racism in the white feminist and gay communities, and to sexism and homophobia in the African American community. Lorde's critical essays, collected in "Sister/Outsider" (1984) and "A Burst of Light "(1988), have been quite influential, particularly "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power," in which she discusses the relationship of poetry to politics and the erotic. Lorde was the recipient of several grants---from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1968 and 1981 and from the Creative Artists Public Service in 1972---as well as the Borough of Manhattan President's Award for Literary Excellence in 1987. She was also nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1974 for her third volume of verse, "From a Land Where Other People Live"(1973). (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno
Opere di Audre Lorde
Apartheid U.S.A. / Our Common Enemy, Our Common Cause: Freedom Organizing in the Eighties (1986) 9 copie
Poetry Is Not a Luxury 5 copie
Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde — Autore — 5 copie
Dzienniki raka 1 copia
Hvem sa det var enkelt 1 copia
Irmã Marginal 1 copia
New Year´s Day 1 copia
Entre Nós 1 copia
Audre Lorde 1 copia
Lorde, Audre Archive 1 copia
Shorelines 1 copia
Hanging Fire {poem} 1 copia
Opere correlate
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study (1992) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni — 514 copie
Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the 17th Century to the Present (1994) — Collaboratore — 447 copie
Wise Women: Over Two Thousand Years of Spiritual Writing by Women (1996) — Collaboratore — 201 copie
Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient… (1992) — Collaboratore — 159 copie
Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction (2002) — Collaboratore — 121 copie
Writing Women's Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Narratives by Twentieth-Century American Women Writers (1994) — Collaboratore — 121 copie
In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry (1656) — Collaboratore — 100 copie
Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep: An Anthology of Poetry by African Americans Since 1945 (1994) — Collaboratore — 89 copie
Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers (1996) — Collaboratore — 88 copie
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Collaboratore — 83 copie
Bearing Witness: Selections from African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century (1991) — Collaboratore — 69 copie
She Rises Like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets (1989) — Collaboratore — 68 copie
Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (2008) — Collaboratore — 50 copie
Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (2013) — Collaboratore — 42 copie
Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women (2023) — Collaboratore — 18 copie
Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology (2024) — Collaboratore — 16 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Lorde, Audre
- Nome legale
- Lorde, Audrey Geraldine (birth name)
- Altri nomi
- Adisa, Gamba
- Data di nascita
- 1934-02-18
- Data di morte
- 1992-11-17
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- New York, New York, USA
Harlem, New York, USA - Luogo di morte
- St. Croix, Virgin Islands
- Luogo di residenza
- New York, New York, USA (birth)
St. Croix, Virgin Islands (death)
Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Stamford, Connecticut, USA
Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico - Istruzione
- Hunter College High School
Hunter College
National University of Mexico
Columbia University (Masters/Library science) - Attività lavorative
- librarian
activist
poet
essayist - Relazioni
- Clayton, Frances (partner until 1989)
Joseph, Gloria (partner 1989 - 1992) - Premi e riconoscimenti
- Publishing Triangle (Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement ∙ 1992)
National Book Critics Circle Award (1994)
Honorary Doctorate of Literature, Hunter College (1991)
Walt Whitman Citation of Merit (1991)
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Oberlin College (1990)
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Haverford College (1989) (mostra tutto 8)
Manhattan Borough President's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1988)
New York State Poet (1991-1993)
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 60
- Opere correlate
- 82
- Utenti
- 8,089
- Popolarità
- #2,994
- Voto
- 4.2
- Recensioni
- 85
- ISBN
- 136
- Lingue
- 12
- Preferito da
- 37
Piccolo disclaimer prima di iniziare questa recensione: scriverò molto di femminilità, che nella mia testa è un insieme di caratteristiche che nella nostra cultura viene associato prevalentemente alle donne. Niente vieta che queste caratteristiche possano essere associate anche agli uomini (e viceversa, le caratteristiche della mascolinità possano essere associate alle donne) e quindi non penso abbiano fondamenti biologici e compagnia bella; niente vieta che a femminilità e mascolinità si unisca la nonbinarietà – un termine che non so se esista, ma spero di aver dato l’idea.
Allora, The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde contiene tutte le poesie pubblicate da Audre Lorde (più di trecento) e non ha note: quindi se siete in cerca di un’edizione annotata non ve la consiglio. Per il resto, è un’edizione molto bella, con un bel font e una carta spessa e meravigliosa al tatto. Come meritano queste poesie.
È difficile dare un’idea di cosa significhi leggere i versi di Audre Lorde: è come risalire un fiume fino alla fonte e contemporaneamente percorrerlo fino al mare; come ascoltare la calma risacca e allo stesso tempo sentir ruggire i cavalloni nel vento. È una poesia potente e ancestrale che canta alle radici della femminilità, nutrendola e mostrandole il suo potenziale.
Ci sono la dolcezza e la tenerezza dell’amore e ci sono la forza e il coraggio di lottare contro ogni forma di discriminazione e oppressione. Ci sono poesie struggenti e poesie selvagge, poesie addolorate e poesie arrabbiate, poesie che urlano la vita e poesie che sussurrano la morte. C’è tutta la complessità di una femminilità troppo spesso appiattita in una narrazione svilente, capace solo di mettere a disagio tanto è lontana dall’esperienza delle donne.
Abbiamo bisogno di una cultura che racconti meglio la femminilità, con più spessore, e che tolga dall’innominabile tutte quelle storie che così tanto disagio sembrano creare negli uomini, che, con la complicità di troppe donne, per millenni hanno fatto di tutto per cancellarle e impedirne la trasmissione.
Per questo spero tanto che le poesie di Lorde arrivino anche in Italia: abbiamo un disperato bisogno di sentirci raccontare bene e di sentir fluire nel sangue la nostra forza e le nostre storie.
Solstice
We forgot to water the plantain shoots
when our houses were full of borrowed meat
and our stomachs with the gifts of strangers
who laugh now as they pass us
because our land is barren
the farms are choked
with stunted rows of straw
and with our nightmares
of juicy brown yams
that cannot fill us.
The roofs of our houses rot from last winter's water
but our drinking pots are broken
we have used them to mourn the death of old lovers
the next rain will wash our footprints away
and our children have married beneath them.
Our skins are empty.
They have been vacated by spirits
who are angered by our reluctance
to feed them.
In baskets of straw made from sleep grass
and the droppings of civets
they have been hidden away by our mothers
who are waiting for us at the river.
My skin is tightening
soon I shall shed it
like a monitor lizard
like remembered comfort
at the new moons rising
I will eat the last signs of my weakness
remove the scars of old childhood wars
and dare to enter the forest whistling
like a snake that had fed the chameleon
for changes
I shall be forever.
May I never remember reasons
for my spirit's safety
may I never forget
the warning of my woman's flesh
weeping at the new moon
may I never lose
that terror
which keeps me brave
may I owe nothing
that I cannot repay.… (altro)