The Afterlives of Audre Lorde

Lorde rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the most lauded thinkers and multigenre writers of her time. She penned ferocious essays on lesbian parenting and healing Black self-hatred. She traveled extensively and wrote about what she saw, connecting the struggles of Black women living under apartheid in South Africa to the United States’ invasion of Grenada and articulating new visions of feminism. She insisted that the women’s movement consider the needs and political realities of Black women and that the Black nationalist and civil rights movement address its homophobia and not ignore its gay and lesbian brethren.