Freedom to be a person who loves who they love, without judgment. Freedom to be a strong woman equal to men. Freedom to be unapologetically black. Your activism spoke to the importance of achieving liberation among the oppressed peoples and their differences in race, sexual orientation, age, and class. Your fight was across the board. You made it known that you were a proud lesbian, poet, mother, and black feminist. A strong fiery force...
There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in colour
as well as sex
and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.
-Audre Lorde (Who said it was simple)
Even in today's more accepting climate, I can find it hard to live unapologetically. That box our society wants us to occupy is always waiting there, tempting us to climb back in to safeguard ourselves. Your ability to live as an openly gay woman in the 60s was brave, understatedly. The nation was even more incredibly homophobic and could not entertain such identities. Not only that but doubly so, you were a black woman. A black woman with an incredible mind of words and articulations that the nation was not at all ready to hear from. It is the history changers like yourself that I find myself gawking at. Your strength, brilliance, courage, and style of statements are unmatched. Quite fabulous to look back on. Your movements have groomed the next line of black women to step into ALL of their power, no space left unoccupied.
I need you need me
le suis Martha I do not speak french kissing
oh Wow, Black and Black . . . Black and . . . beautiful?
Black and becoming
somebody else maybe Erica maybe who sat
in the fourth row behind us in high school
but I never took French with you Martha
and who is this madame Erudite
who is not me?
-Audre Lorde (Martha)
Your ability to create stories in your poems leave me feeling as though I know these people. That I do not live a life much different from them. To capture such humanity, such memories that we all seem to have of our formative years are remarkable. Miss Audre Lorde, your words, your storytelling, your fight, and your confidence continue to guide me in this thing called life.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane
Comments