"Audre-Lord" (February 18 1934-November 17 1992)

Born Audrey Geraldine Lorde,was an African American writer,feminist,womanist,lesbian,and civil rights activist.As a poet,she is best known for technical mastery and emotional expression,particularly in poems expressing anger and outrage at civil and social injustices  she observed throughout her life.Her poems and prose largely dealt with issues related to civil rights,
feminism,and the expoloration of  African American female identity.In relation to white feminist in the United States,Audre famously said "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

She was born in New York to Caribbean immigrants from Barbados and Carriacou,Frederick Byron Lorde (called Byron) and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde,who settled in Harlem.Audre's mama was of mixed ancestry but could pass for white,a source of  pride for family.Audrey's daddy was darker than the Belmar family liked,and they only allowed the couple to marry because of Byron charm,ambition,and persistence.Nearsighted to the point of being legally blind,and the youngest of three daughters (two oldest sisters,Phyllis & Helen),Audre grew up hearing her mama's stories about the West Indies.She learned to talk while she learned to read,at the age of  four,and her mama taught her to write around the same time.She wrote her first poem when she was in the eight grade.

She chose to drop the "y" from her first name while still a child,explaining in Zami: A New Spelling of  My Name that she was more interested in the artistic symmetry of the "e" - endings in
the two side-by-side names "Audre Lorde" than in her spelling her name the way her parents had
intended.

Audre relationship with her parents was difficult from young age.She was able to spend very little time with her parents,who were busy maintaining their real estate business in the tumultuous economy after the Great Depression,and when she did see them,they were often cold or emotionally distant.In particular,Audre's relationship with her mama,who was deeply suspicious of  people with darker skin than hers (which Audre was) and the outside world in general, was characterized by "tough love" and strict adherence to family rules.Audre difficult relationship with her mama would figure prominently in her poems,such as Coal's "Story Books on a Kitchen Table.

As a child,Audre who struggled with communication,came to appreciate the power of poetry as a form of expression.She memorized a great deal of poetry,and would use it to communicate,to the extent that,"If  asked how she was feeling,Audre reply by reciting a poem.Around the age of twelve,she began writing her own poetry and connecting with others at her school who were considered "outcasts" as she felt she was.

She attended Hunter College High School,secondary school for intellectually gifted students,and graduated in 1951.

In 1954,Audre spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of  Mexico,a period she described as a time of  affirmation and renewal,during which she confirmed her identity on personal  and artistic  levels as a lesbian and poet.On her return to New York,she attended Hunter College,graduating class of 1959.There,she worked as a librarian,continued writing and became an active participant in the gay culture of  Greenwhich village.Lorde furthered her education at
Columbia University,earning a master's degree in Library Science in 1961.She also worked during this time as a librarian Mount Vermon Public Library and married attorney Edwin Rollins;they divorced in 1970 after having two children,Elizabeth & Jonathan.In 1966,Audre became librarian at Town School Library in New York City,where she remained until 1968.

In 1968 Audre was write-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi,where she met Frances Clayton,a white professor of psychology,who was to be her romantic partner until 1989.

Audre's time at Tougaloo College,like her year at the National University of Mexico,was a formative experience for Audre as an artis.She led workshops with her young African American undergraduate students,many whom were eager to discuss the civil rights issues of that time.
Through her interactions with her students,Audre reaffirmed her desire not only to live out her
"crazy and queer" identity,but devoted new attention to the new formal aspects of craft as a poet.
Her book of poems Cables to Rage came out of her time and experience at Tougaloo.

From 1977-1978 Audre had a brief  affair with the sculptor and painter Mildred Thompson.The Two met in Nigeria in 1977 at the Second World Black and African Festival of  Arts and Culture
(FESTAC 77) Their affair ran its course during that time Mildred lived in Washington,D.C.

Audre battled cancer for fourteen years.She first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978 and underwent a mastectomy.Six years later,she was diagnosed with liver cancer.After her diagnosis,
she chose to become more focused on both her life and her writing.She wrote The Cancer Journals
which won the American Library Association Gay Caucus Book of of  the Year Award in 1981.
Audre featured as the subject of a documentary called a Litany for  Survival: The Life and Work of  Audre Lorde,which shows  her as an author,poet,human rights activist,feminist,lesbian,a teacher,a survivor,and a crusader against bigotry.Lorde is quoted in the film as saying: "What I leave behind has a life of its own.I've said this about poetry;I've said it about children.Well,in a sense I'm saying it about the very artifact of who I have been.

From 1991 until her her death,she was New York State Poet Laureate.In 1992,she received the Bill
Whitehead Award for lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle.In 2001,Publishing Triangle
instituted the Audre Lorde Award to honor works of  lesbian poetry.

Audre died of  liver cancer,in St.Croix,where she had been living with Gloria I Joseph.She was 58.
In African naming ceremony before her death,she took the name Gamba Adisa,which means "Warrior: She who Makes Her  Meaning Known.