I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde

297 Pages·2009·0.83 MB·English

by  Rudolph P. Byrd

I AM YOUR SISTER
The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against
Urban Inequality
RHONDA Y. WILLIAMS
Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White
PRUDENCE L. CARTER
Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities, and the Call
for a Deep Democracy
J. PHILLIP THOMPSON, III
Party / Politics: Horizons in Black Political Thought
MICHAEL HANCHARD
In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in
the Post–Civil Rights Era
RICHARD ITON
I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of
Audre Lorde
RUDOLPH P. BYRD, JOHNNETTA BETSCH COLE, AND
BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL, EDITORS
I Am Your Sister
COLLECTED AND UNPUBLISHED
WRITINGS OF AUDRE LORDE
Edited by
RUDOLPH P. BYRD
JOHNNETTA BETSCH COLE
BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL
1
2009
3
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Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
“Eva’s Man by Gayl Jones,” “Self-Defi nition and My Poetry,” “Poet as Teacher—Human as Poet—Teacher
as Human,” “Poetry Makes Something Happen,” “My Mother’s Mortar,” “Difference and Survival,” “The
First Black Feminist Retreat,” “When Will the Ignorance End?” “Litany of Commitment,” “Commence-
ment Address: Oberlin College,” “What Is at Stake in Lesbian and Gay Publishing Today,” “Is Your Hair Still
Political?” and “A Burst of Light”: Copyright © 2009 by the Estate of Audre Lorde.
“Introduction: Create Your Own Fire: Audre Lorde and the Tradition of Black Radical Thought,” “Audre
Lorde: My Shero, My Teacher, My Sister Friend,” and “Epilogue: Bearing Witness: The Legacy of Audre
Lorde”: Copyright © 2009 by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta B. Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall.
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Printed in the United States of America
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We dedicate this book to the friendship the three of us
enjoy. It is a friendship that keeps us on each other’s minds
and in each other’s hearts; gives us permission to critique
each other’s work; and is strengthened by the belief we
share with Audre Lorde that “it is not difference that
immobilizes us but silence.”
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to express our gratitude to the following institutions for their
support and encouragement as we brought I Am Your Sister: Collected
and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde to publication: the Spelman
College Archives; the Estate of Audre Lorde; the Audre Lorde Collec-
tion of the Lesbian Herstory Archives; the Spelman College Women’s Re-
search and Resource Center; and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library
of the Manuscript, Archive, Rare Book Library of Emory University.
Permission to reprint the following selections is also gratefully ac-
knowledged: “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”
(Ten Speed Press); and “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface”
(Aunt Lute Books).
We also would like to acknowledge the generosity of three special
friends who granted permission to reprint their works in this volume:
bell hooks for “Lorde: The Imagination of Justice”; Gloria I. Joseph for
“Remembering Audre Lorde”; and Alice Walker for “Audre’s Voice.”
I Am Your Sister is published as part of Oxford University Press’s
series Transgressing Boundaries, which was conceived and is very ably
edited by Cathy J. Cohen and Frederick Harris. We are indebted to them
for their support of a collection that will generate new scholarship and
teaching on Audre Lorde.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to our partners,
friends, and colleagues who advanced this project in vital and signifi -
cant ways: Brenda Banks, Cecelia Corbin Hunter, Lydia English, Jeffrey
B. Leak, Henry A. Leonard, Ingrid Saunders Jones, Cynthia N. Spence,
Taronda Spencer, and James D. Stanton, Jr.
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CONTENTS
Credits xiii
Introduction. Create Your Own Fire: Audre Lorde and the
Tradition of Black Radical Thought 3
Rudolph P. Byrd
part i. from sister outsider and
a burst of light
1. The Transformation of Silence into Language and
Action 39
2. Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface 44
3. Sadomasochism: Not About Condemnation: An Interview
with Audre Lorde 50
Susan Leigh Star
4. I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across
Sexualities 57
5. Apartheid U.S.A. 64
6. Turning the Beat Around: Lesbian Parenting 1986 73
7. A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer 81
part ii. my words will be there
8.Eva’s Man by Gayl Jones: A Review 153
9. Self-Defi nition and My Poetry 156
10. Introduction: Movement in Black by Pat Parker 158