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Audre Lorde (1934–1992) described herself as existing at the intersection of several key identities: Black, lesbian, woman, mother, and poet. She lived most of her life in New York City, where she attended Hunter College and Columbia University, and eventually took up a teaching position at Hunter. Throughout her career, Lorde rigorously attended to the social and political complexities of her lived experience, and this attention enabled her to conjure a poetry fueled by a potent and righteous anger. As she writes in her landmark 1984 essay collection, Sister Outsider: “My Black woman’s anger is a molten pond at the core of me, my most fiercely guarded secret.” 

Lorde wielded her righteous anger powerfully in her poems to address a range of injustices—racism, sexism, and homophobia being foremost among them. In addition to being a prolific poet, Lorde also wrote important prose works, such as The Cancer Journals (1980) and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982). In 1981, Lorde co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. The work of this press deepened her commitment to Black feminism—a commitment that burned fiercely for the rest of her life. Lorde died of breast cancer at the age of 58 in 1992.

Next section Historical & Literary Context

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