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OBEMA Special Issue Audre Lorde: Poetry Is Not A Luxury Biography: Audrey Geraldine Lorde was born in 1934 in New York to Caribbean immigrants as one of four daughters. She suffered from cancer and died in 1992. She was a black homosexual woman and mother in a world of white heterosexual males and her life was dominated by fighting for each of these minorities. She wrote about the struggle for human rights, racial conflicts and sexism, her black culture, her status as woman and as homosexual. As first sign for her need to live a self determined life she dropped the "y" of her name. But her work is not entirely political; Lorde also wrote about personal themes like her appreciation for her blackness, African mythologies and the relation with her children. In fact her teacher told her, her poems were too romantic and so she published her first poem at the age of fifteen in the Seventeen magazine. Audre started writing as a twelve-year-old girl, because she could no longer find poems that expressed her feelings, though she did not speak until the age of five. She also wrote under the name of Rey Domini. Lorde was married for 8 years and had two children. Speaking for women who have no voice of their own she published over a dozen books on poetry, and six books of prose. She was given the African name Gamba Adisa, meaning "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Clear". Introducing herself as "I'm a Black Lesbian Mother Warrior Poet" became her personal ritual of expressing her difference and the power accompanying it. Lorde went to the Hunter College, where she graduated in 1959. Two years later she finished her masters in library science at Columbia University and worked as a librarian at Mount Vernon Public Library until 1963. Between 1966 and 1968 she was the head librarian at Town School Library in New York City. In 1968 she quit her job to become a lecturer and creative writer, received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and became Poet-in-Residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, where the civil rights battles were close at hand. That same year she published her first volume of poetry The First Cities. In 1972 Lorde received a Creative Artists Public Service grant. Her editor rejected her as she wanted to include a poem of lesbian love in her third volume of poetry From a Land Where Other People Live. Her Cancer Journals won her the American Library Association Gay Caucus Book of the Year for 1981. The journals document her 14-year battle with cancer which she saw as another form of her battle for self-determination and survival that black women have to fight every day of their lives. Audre Lorde taught writing courses and courses on racism at Lehman College and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. After that she became professor at Hunter College in New York, where in 1987 she held the post of Thomas Hunter Chair of Literature. She formed the Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, co-founded the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, and established the St. Croix Women's Coalition. In 1979 she spoke at the first national march for gay and lesbian liberation in Washington, DC and was an editor of the lesbian journal Chrysalis. Awards/Honors National Endowment for the Arts grants, 1968 and 1981 Creative Artists Public Service grants, 1972 and 1976 National Book Award nominee for poetry, 1974 for From a Land Where Other People Live Broadside Poets Award, Detroit, 1975 Woman of the Year, Staten Island Community College, 1975 Borough of Manhattan President's Award for literary excellence, 1987 Walt Whitman Citation of Merit, poet laureate of New York, 1991 Selected Works Poetry: The First Cities, introduction by Diane di Prima, Poets Press, 1968. Cables to Rage, Broadside Press, 1970. From a Land Where Other People Live, Broadside Press, 1973. The New York Head Shop and Museum, Broadside Press, 1974. Coal, Norton, 1976. Between Our Selves, Eidolon, 1976. The Black Unicorn, Norton, 1978. Chosen Poems Old and New, Norton, 1982. Our Dead Behind Us, Norton, 1986. Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New, Norton, 1992. The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance, Norton, 1993. Other Writings: The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power, The Crossing Press, 1978. The Cancer Journals, Spinster Ink, 1980. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Crossing Press, 1982. Sister Outsider, Crossing Press, 1984. I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities, Women of Color Press, 1985. Turning the Beat Around: Lesbian Parenting, 1986. Burst of Light, Firebrand Books, 1988. Need: A Chorale for Black Women Voices, Women of Color Press, 1990. Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist's Response The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism Excerpt from "Poetry Is Not A Luxury" Coal I Is the total black, being spoken From the earth's inside. There are many kinds of open. How a diamond comes into a knot of flame How a sound comes into a word, colored By who pays what for speaking. Some words are open Like a diamond on glass windows Singing out within the crash of passing sun Then there are words like stapled wagers In a perforated book - buy and sign and tear apart - And come whatever wills and chances The stub remains An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge. Some words live in my throat Breeding like adders. Others know sun Seeking like gypsies over my tongue To explode through my lips Like young sparrows bursting from shell. Some words Bedevil me. Love is a word another kind of open - As a diamond comes into a knot of flame I am black because I come from the earth's inside Take my word for jewel in the open light.   Kohle Ich Ist das absolute Schwarz, das gesprochen wird Aus dem Inneren der Erde. Es gibt viele Arten von Öffnungen. Wie ein Diamant in ein Flammenbündel kommt Wie ein Klang in ein Wort kommt, gefärbt Durch wer was bezahlt um zu sprechen. Einige Worte sind offen Wie ein Diamant vor einem Glasfenster Seinen Gesang entfaltet inmitten der Explosion der vorbeigleitenden Sonne Dann gibt es Worte wie zusammengeheftete Wettscheine In einem perforierten Buch - kaufen und unterzeichnen und abreißen - Und komme was da wolle Der Stumpf bleibt Ein schlecht gezogener Zahn mit zerfetzten Rand. Einige Worte leben in meinem Hals Brütend wie Nattern. Andere kennen die Sonne Suchend wie Zigeuner auf meiner Zunge Um durch meine Lippen zu explodieren Wie junge Spatzen aus der Schale brechen. Einige Worte Verhexen mich. Liebe ist ein Wort, eine andere Art von Öffnung - Wie ein Diamant in ein Flammenbündel kommt Ich bin schwarz weil ich aus dem Inneren der Erde komme Nehmt meine Worte als Juwel in Euer offenes Licht. Internet: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/lorde.html http://www.lambda.net/maximum/lorde.html http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/RYAN.HTML http://voives.cla.umn.edu/authors/AudreLorde.html http://www.uic.edu/depts/quic/history/audre_lorde.html