14 years ago I was only 8 years old, and had no idea who she was or how much she would influence my life later on. It always saddens me to think that she lived and died, and I never knew about her. I wish that I could go back in time, and just ask her so many questions about life, love just everything. I'm at a point in my life where little makes sense most of the time, I feel like I live in a constant state of confusion. But when I read her words I feel like she had an in, like someone told her the world's greatest secrets. She just has such a solid realistic understanding of this world. She theorized about the erotic in a way that I think is just above most people's thinking. Audre Lorde was just simply amazing.
Now all I have are her words that she left behind and I'm grateful for each one, so here's to you Audre the world still mourns your death.
Some of my favorite quotes
“Our visions begin with our desires.”
“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”
“When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid”
“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
“Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge”
“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house”
“The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”
“I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side”
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.”
“I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.”
“As we come to know, accept, and explore our feelings, they will become sanctuaries and fortresses and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas-the house of difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action.”
"...But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in color
as well as sex
and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations. "
~Audre Lorde (Who said it was so simple)
"Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change." – Audre Lorde
She was beautiful inside and out!
Rest In Peace
Audre Lorde
February 18, 1934 - November 17, 1992
Audre Lorde
February 18, 1934 - November 17, 1992
3 comments:
She sounded like a very wise woman. Thanks for sharing her with us!
Hey! It's Emily. I have a blog too. It's feminaziforthewin.blogspot.com. I'd link you from there, but I don't have any admin privileges since I'm piggy-backing off of someone else's blog. Hope everything's going well, and I look forward to adding your blog onto my list of must reads!
i love audre lorde's quote on coming to know, accept, and explore our feelings, but would like to read the entire essay/poem/book - does anyone know where it came from?
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