Audre Lorde Research Paper

Audre Lorde was a woman of many facets. She self proclaimed herself a ‘black feminist lesbian poet’, a ‘forty-nine-year-old black lesbian feminist socialist mother of two”, a ‘member of an interracial couple’, and ‘your sister’ (Homans, 517). Needless to say, Lorde never confined herself to one group of people. These self-proclaimed titles were never meant to limit her, but to help her audience understand her life and relate to her. Throughout her journey, she continued to add titles to her repertoire, building her strength and experience. Audre Lorde’s rough upbringing and numerous encounters with various types of adversity pushed her to be the controversial and confrontational poet people know her as today. Motivated by injustice, she channels

Lorde married Edwin Rollins in 1962 but divorced in 1970 (“Audre Lorde […] Outhistory.org”). The couple had a daughter and a son together, adding wife and mother to Lorde’s list of many identities. Although Lorde had homosexual feelings while young, she still had not discovered her sexuality. Lorde’s realization came at the time of her extra-marital affair. Lorde met a woman while she worked at Tougaloo College and fell in love; her new relationship led to the end of her struggling marriage (“Audre Lorde […] Outhistory.org”). It was when Lorde was working at a college that she met her future partner, Frances Clayton (“Audre Lorde […] Outhistory.org”). After divorcing her husband, she introduced her children to Clayton and built a family unit around her new relationship (“Audre Lorde […] Outhistory.org”). Realizing her true sexuality gave her such power; she wanted to share her fire with the world. Lorde came out as lesbian by reading her poem “Love Poem” from her third book to a live audience (“Audre Lorde […] Outhistory.org”). She became a feminist and gay activist, promoting openness with the female body. She encourages her readers to explore different pleasures, because she believes having knowledge of the erotic is having power. In 1978, Lorde found a lump in her breast while travelling (“Lorde, Audre”). She wrote The Cancer Journals and A Burst of Light: Essays while undergoing cancer treatment; both are candid accounts of her battles going through and coming out of the suffering (“Lorde, Audre”). As such, Lorde added lesbian and cancer patient to her titles. Fans continued to relate to her more and appreciate her raw writing. Lorde found power the more she discovered about herself and shared with the