Audre Lorde

essays and speeches

Sister outsider

The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women'. Uncompromising, angry and yet full of hope, this collection of her essential prose - essays, speeches, letters, interviews - explores race, sexuality, poetry, friendship, the erotic and the need for female solidarity, and includes her landmark piece 'The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House'. 'The truth of her writing is as necessary today as it's ever been' Guardian

Sister Outsider

Marion

If the problems of Black women are only derivatives of a larger contradiction between capital and labor, then so is racism, and both must be fought by all of us. The capitalist structure is a many-headed monster. I might add here that in no socialist country that I have visited have I found an absence of racism or of sexism, so the eradication of both of these diseases seems to involve more than the abolition of capitalism as an institution.

What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? Perhaps for some of you here today. I am the face of one of your fears. 

Because I am woman, because I am Black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself- a Black woman warrior poet doing my work - come to ask you, are you doing yours?

Ana Belén

which are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? 

But as we come more into touch with our own ancient, non-european consciousness of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with, we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and, therefore, lasting action comes. 

The woman’s place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep. 

as we learn to bear the intimacy of scrutiny and to flourish within it, as we learn to use the products of that scrutiny, for power within our living, those fears which rule our lives and form our silences begin to lose their control over us. 

I asked her one question, whether “the men were encouraged to work in the kindergartens to give the children a gentle male figure at an early age”. 

The fourteen essays and speeches collected in this work, several of them published for the first time, span almost a decade of this Black lesbian feminnist's work. Lorde is unflinching in her observations and is lucid and clarifying in her coverage of a range of essential topics.

Essays and Speeches

Cloudface

Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.

Somewhere, on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows "that is not me." In america, this norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, christian, and financially secure. It is with this mythical norm that the trappings of power reside within this society. Those of us who stand outside that power often identify one way in which we are different, and we assume that to be the primary cause of all oppression, forgetting other distortions around difference, some of which we ourselves may be practising. By and large within the women's movement today, white women focus upon their oppression as women and ignore differences of race, sexual preference, class, and age. There is a pretense to a homogeneity of experience covered by the word sisterhood that does not in fact exist.

Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.

Syrina

“Don’t trust white people because they mean us no good and don’t trust anyone darker than you because their hearts are as black as their faces. “ (And where did that leave me, the darkest one?)

We had to metabolize such hatred that our cells have learned to live upon it because we had to, or die of it.

The answer to cold is heat, the answer to hunger is food. But there is no simple monolithic solution to racism, to sexism, to homophobia.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of color remains chained. Nor is any one of you.

Unless one lives and loves in the trenches it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.

It is as hard for our children to believe that we are not omnipotent as it is for us to know it, as parents.

It is not the destiny of black America to repeat white America‘s mistakes. But we will, if we mistake the trappings of success in a sick society for the signs of a meaningful life.

An inability to recognize the notion of difference as a dynamic human force, one which is enriching rather than threatening to the defined self

It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas. They become a sate-house tor that difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action.

I also am intrigued by idea that there are writers who are paid to be writers and by -bot they survive and they wield considerable power. I am also well aware that if what they write is not acceptable, then it never gets read or it never gets printed. So what's new? But you do have a country there that has the largest reading nonulation in the world, that prints books of poetry in editions of 250,000 copies and those copies sell out in three months. Everywhere you go, even among those miles of cotton being arvested in the Uzbekhi sun, people are reading, and no mat- fer what you may say about censorship, they are still readin. nd thev're reading an awful lot. Some books are pirated from from the West because Russia does not observe International Copyright. In Sarmarkhand, Ernest Gaines' The Autobiograbhy of Miss Jane Pittman was the latest best seller. Now, how many the West because Russia does not observe International Russian novels in translation have you read this past year?

But she talked most movingly of the history of the women of Uzbekistan, a history which deserves more writing about than I can give it here. The ways in which the women of this area, from 1924 on, fought to come out from behind complete veiling, from Moslem cloister to the twentieth century. How they gave their lives to go barefaced, to be able to read. Many of them fought and many of them died very terrible deaths in this battle. killed by their own fathers and brothers. 

I spoke in English and she spoke in Russian but I felt very strongly that our hearts spoke the same tongue.

what could I possible have to say about audre lorde's essays? maybe only that I wish I could get poetry is not a luxury, the transformation of silence into language and action, and uses of the erotic: the erotic as power tattooed onto the underside of my eyes

biddy

Patricia K

Essays

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A vital essay collection that feels just as relevant today as it did in the 70s and 80s. 

By far the most meaningful book I have read in a long time. Audre Lorde is such a beautiful writer, remarkable in thought, in word, in collection. This book is not for the casual consumer. It’s meant to be chewed on, to cause an awakening, to restructure the foundation of all that you know and all that you are. This will likely be a book I revisit often throughout the years - knowing it’s relevance resounds.

jiveen liew

It is amazing and depressing how relevant and applicable this book is in 2021.

Lydia Enge

Jamieson

"For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him his own game, but they will never enable us to bring genuine change"


My first foray into Audre Lorde outside of the odd extract read in university and I loved it. This is absolutely essential reading for intersectional feminism, queer theory, Black Lesbian lit and just race/class/gender commentary. It is alarming how recent some of the issues Lorde brings up feel, not much has maybe changed. Brilliantly written, every essay highly engaging and worthwhile. An all-around must-read for everyone. I cannot wait to read more Audre Lorde, and to reread this once I have a physical copy and can highlight/take notes 

My top five favourites were 

- Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
- The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House
- Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist's Response
- Grenada Revisited: An Interim Report
- Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving

Chiyeung lau

Wow. Just incredible. Will def need to reread.

“Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.”

Charlee Boone

this had some really profound quotes. it can be heavy at times. the writing style was really different and could be hard to absorb at times. still glad I read it and heard her thoughts on these still relevant and prominent issues.

Kamerin Villagomez

my most favorite book ever. i will never forget reading this for the first time. changed my view of myself in a time of prime adolescence 

Sahi K

Probably more of a 3.5 but I am rounding up.

This was an interesting collection of essays, and I liked getting to know a historical perspective of feminism from a Black lesbian woman. The audiobook is narrated well too and I would definitely recommend the format. It might not feel as inclusive as we would like it to be, but it wasn't really a deal breaker for me.

Jales

profoundly touched by her strength and intelligence. she's an inspiration! 

a must-read.

John Balek

Prior to reading this I didn't really have any idea who Audre Lorde was. Usually essay compilations can be a mixed bag but Sister Outsider stays strong all the way through. This was a great introduction to Lorde as it really goes into who she is and her thoughts on all aspects of her life. Her experiences as a black lesbian allow her to speak on racism, sexism, and homophobia and how all of those facets correlate. 

The greatest strength to Lorde's work is that its less about "us vs them" and more about how we can all improve our lives through a better understand and consideration for those not like us. For this reason anyone can get something out of this book, regardless of race, sex, or orientation. It also helps that Lorde is an incredible writer, who makes each essay as vivid and enthralling as it is informative and eye opening. I look forward to reading more from her.

Mia McCoy

Stas

Alex

marketa

Gabriella Lanouette

blake

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. “[Lorde's] works will be important to those truly interested in growing up sensitive, intelligent, and aware.”—The New York Times In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope. This commemorative edition includes a new foreword by Lorde-scholar and poet Cheryl Clarke, who celebrates the ways in which Lorde's philosophies resonate more than twenty years after they were first published. These landmark writings are, in Lorde's own words, a call to “never close our eyes to the terror, to the chaos which is Black which is creative which is female which is dark which is rejected which is messy which is . . . ”

Sister outsider essays and speeches

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