Audre Lorde

Your Silence Will Not Protect You

biddy

The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.

Elena Zieser

Jemima Scott

reading lorde is like coming home, getting ready for a battle full of compassion, care, anger, all the unspoken things, it feels like giving up solitude, yet leaning in to it. 

antonia maria wagner she/they

collections like this one - of works fundamental for understanding contemporary intersectional feminism and understanding black women - are difficult to review. one some levels, suffice it to say that the writing demands to be read and re-read and memorised to the point i was itching to go and by my own copy so i can underline and annotate (how funny that only some books are worthy of this).

on another, i am a white woman audre lorde's work was never for nor about me but i would not have been a whole person without it regardless. in that aspect, lorde is an invaluable voice to be heard and to be listened to. one - a feminist, an activist - cannot truly understand and practise intersectionality if they do not hear the voices that have historically be silent, and uplift them. it is important to recognise our different experiences and not simply close our eyes for them but support our sisters in their unique struggles.

works from lorde's essays that will particularly stick with me, i think, are 'the transformation of silence into language and action', 'poetry is not a luxury', 'uses of the erotic' and 'age, race, class and sex: women redefining difference'. the thought that you must speak up, even if you are afraid of suffering, as you will suffer regardless - that struck me particularly deeply.

as for her poetry, i am a poor poetry reader but i found 'martha', 'a litany for survival', 'afterimages' and 'need' very evocative and impactful.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You

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