IPR is featuring some of the many LGBTQ+ pioneers and modern-day heroes to celebrate Pride month.
Audre Lorde was a Black, lesbian poet and activist whose work advocated for the liberation of oppressed groups. Lorde published her first poem in Seventeen magazine as a high school student. She went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and a Master of Library Sciences degree from Columbia University. She worked as a librarian in the New York public schools throughout the 1960s.
Early on, Lorde discussed the intersections of race, class, and gender in canonical essays such as “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House.” She was central to many liberation movements, including second-wave feminism, civil rights, Black cultural movements, and struggles for LGBTQ+ equality. Lorde’s poetry is known for the power of its call for social and racial justice, as well as its depictions of queer experience and sexuality. Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices on the basis of race, sex, and sexual preference.
References
Audre Lorde
Poetry Foundation
About Audre Lorde
The Audre Lorde Project
