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Birth of Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde was born on February 8th 1934 to immigrant parents. None of them knowing that they just gave birth to a woman that would be a help to the feminist, woman, and LGBT activism.
Picture from https://afrodiaspores.tumblr.com/post/6275962843/audre-lorde-as-a-child-between-her -
First poem published
Audre Lorde sought out Seventeen magazine and got her first poem published. She did this because at the school said her poem was inappropriate due to her talking about being a black woman. Facing a common struggle from white people to people of color.
Picture from https://poets.org/text/archive-audre-lorde-1971-reading-flyer -
Cicero Race Riot
The Cicero Race Riot was a riot of 4000 white men against a black family. This event puts even more power behind Audre Lordes poem about the reason for civil rights.
Photo and information from https://aaregistry.org/story/cicero-race-riots-happen/ -
Death of Malcolm X
Malcom X death he was assassinated. This was important to Audre because the day of his death she read his work in a new understanding about why he was assassinated.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s/
Photo from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-assassination-of-malcolm-x-1779364 -
Poetry for the dead
In 1968 she received the National Endowment for the Arts that she was able to start writing full time which allowed her to begin writing a book of poetry called cables to rage brought on by the death of Martin Luther King jr, Malcolm X, and the Kenndy's.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095540486
Photo from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/689191.Cables_To_Rage -
Assassination
In the same year as The First Cities being published, Martin Luther King jr. was assassinated. This was an event that shook the civil rights movement and all that supported the movement. This assassination led Audre Lorde to write a poem about the pain and fear of a black female. -
First volume of Poetry
Lorde published her first volume of poetry, The First Cities, in 1968. This volume expressed love between two women and racism. This was a stepping stone in exposing the lgbtq and interracial relationships. Something that people were tortured and killed over for just being themselves. Picture from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31815056-the-first-cities -
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall Riots were started at the Stonewall Inn with a violent demonstrations the gay community in response to a unprovoked police raid.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-scholars-reflect-on-the-history-and-legacy-of-the-stonewall-riots/ -
Cables to Rage
The book Cables to Rage was publish from the after affect of the assassination of Kennedy, Martin Luther king jr and the Stonewall Riots. Through poetry she explains her anger at the social injustice towards civil, women, and lgbt rights.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095540486 -
Gay Liberation Front
Because of the stonewall incident and going to a GLF event in New York Aubrey Walter and Bob Mellor founded the Gay Liberation Front in London. Inspired by the leader of the Black Panther party supporting the lesbian and gay community.
https://libcom.org/library/brief-history-gay-liberation-front-1970-73 -
Founder of SISA
In 1972 Audre Lorde founded the Sisterhood in Support of Sister (SISA) in South Africa, which was to lend support to black women dealing with apartheid and the adverse effects of it.
Picture from https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/messenger/2018/04/03/audre-lorde-a-powerful-woman-and-her-poetry/ -
First major publication
Coal was Audre Lorde's first major publication. This contained her work describing her view of being a black, lesbian, mother, woman. This is why she choose coal for its color. Anyone reading would be able to understand at least one of the struggles she wrote.
Photo from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/137108.Coal -
The Big C
In 1978 the sad discovery of breast cancer was made for Audre Lorde. In turn this made her write about cancer and getting through it, inspiring other cancer patients through her work.
Photo from https://www.tumblr.com/search/taelord%20existence -
Tamoxifen
The drug tamoxifen was approved by the FDA for the use of breast cancer treatment. Something extremely important and helpful to Audre and all people with breast cancer considering it treats and prevents breast cancer in most patients.
Photo from: https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal/serms/tamoxifen -
Letter to Mary Daly
Audre Lorde wrote a letter to Mary Daly with her critique of Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly. Lorde critiqued it due to Mary Daly wanting all women to be treated fairly, but had only written and showed pictures of white goddessess or white women. Audre waited four months before publishing the letter on oct 1979. This was an excellent example of her being a feminist and using her voice.
Photo from https://biancalaureano.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Lorde-Open-Letter.pdf -
The Cancer Journals
Because of the Cancer this made her write about her struggles in her first prose collection, The Cancer Journals. Not only did she write about her struggles but she wrote poems about her same sex partners she had. Photo from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/623541/the-cancer-journals-by-audre-lorde-foreword-by-tracy-k-smith/ -
Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
Barbara Smith started a press "to make visual the writing, culture, and history of women of color." At the urging of poet Audre Lorde
photo from https://www.kitchen-table.org/ -
Speaking against Racisim
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism/
At the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, in Storrs, Connecticut Audre Lorde spook out against racism in the community. -
American Library Association's Gay Caucus Book of the Year Award
In 1981 Audre Lorde received the American Library Association’s Gay Caucus Book of the Year Award for The Cancer Journals. The Cancer Journals contained poems and essays showing how during her pain in cancer treatments she met her partner. Even though she had struggles in her heath it led to her finding love with her partner which than led to the award. -
Letter to Mary Daly, again
Letter to Daly is published again in Sister Outsider in 1984. The letter Audre Lorde set would be a teaching tool for studying white feminist racism in Women's Studies courses.
https://feminismandreligion.com/2011/10/05/mary-dalys-letter-to-audre-lorde/ -
Afro-Germen
During her travels and activism Audre Lorde taught and inspired two black German women named May Ayim and Katharina Oguntoye who went on to produce their own books and stories and take the name of Afro-German. Continuing to spread civil and women rights in other parts of the world.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/travel/berlin-audre-lorde.html -
Manhattan Borough President’s Award
In 1988 she received the Manhattan Borough President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. This was presented to her for all of her accomplishments and inspirations from her poems, essays, and speechs. -
National Book Award
Although Lorde’s volume From a Land Where Other People Live was published in 1973, which further detailed her struggle with cancer, won a National Book Award in 1989. The National Book award is a tighter field for only an American citizen and for the genre of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. Winning this award proved that her work was one of the best.
Photo from https://www.nationalbook.org/people/audre-lorde/ -
American Book Award
In 1989 Audre Lorde's The American Book Award for A Burst of Light in 1989. The American Book Awards is an important event because it highlighted that Audre Lorde's work was being recognized for literary excellence without limitations of restrictions in the entire united states.
Photo from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1280001.A_Burst_of_Light -
I am your sister
October of 1990, Lorde’s work and life were celebrated by over a thousand women attending the “I Am Your Sister” conference in Boston. Her works expressing about Black woman accepting and loving their sexuality. Many women finding comfort in her works.
Photo from https://womenslibrary.org.uk/collection-item/i-am-your-sister-black-women-organizing-across-sexualities-audre-lorde/ -
Death of Audre Lorde
At Audre Lorde's request her ashes were scattered at sea.
Photo from https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/20/books/audre-lorde-58-a-poet-memoirist-and-lecturer-dies.html
