Audre Lorde

1934-1992

Audre Lorde was a writer and activist who was born in New York City and started writing poetry in her early teens. Her first poem was published by Seventeen magazine when she was still in high school.

She described herself as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” and dedicated her life and work to confronting racism, sexism, and homophobia. Lorde was a leader in feminist thought and theory as well as an outspoken critic of racism within the feminist movement. She was also a major figure in the Black Arts Movement—the burgeoning of African-American, politically-engaged art in the 1960s and 1970s that drew inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance.

During her lifetime, she published 15 books of poetry, prose, and essays, including Coal (1976)—a collection of poems that explore the intersection of black and female identities—and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)—a novel recounting Lorde’s life and growing awareness of her sexuality; two more volumes were published posthumously. In much of her writing, Lorde employed
her “theory of difference,” arguing that age, class, gender, health, and race were fundamental to understanding female experience. She battled cancer for 14 years and documented her experience in The Cancer Journals, published in 1980.