— Ch. 1 · Childhood And The Power Of Poetry —
Audre Lorde.
~7 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Audre Lorde was born Audrey Geraldine Lorde on the 18th of February 1934, in New York City to Caribbean immigrants Frederick Byron Lorde and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde. Her father came from Barbados while her mother originated from the island of Carriacou in Grenada. The family settled in Harlem after immigration, yet young Audre spent very little time with parents who were busy managing property during the Great Depression era. She faced significant challenges as a child because she was nearsighted to the point of being legally blind. At age four, she learned to read simultaneously with learning to talk with help from Augusta Braxton Baker at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. Her mother taught her to write around that same time. Lorde struggled with communication throughout childhood and eventually found poetry served as her primary form of expression. She memorized vast amounts of poetry and would recite them when asked how she felt. By age twelve, she began writing original poems and connected with other school outcasts who shared her sense of isolation. Raised Catholic, she attended parochial schools before moving to Hunter College High School for gifted students. Poet Diane di Prima became a classmate and friend during these years. In high school, Lorde published her first poem in Seventeen magazine after her school journal rejected it for being inappropriate.
Librarian To Professor And Press Founder
In 1954, Lorde spent a pivotal year as a student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico where she confirmed her identity as both a lesbian and a poet. Upon returning to New York, she attended Hunter College and graduated in the class of 1959 while working as a librarian. She furthered her education at Columbia University School of Library Service earning a master degree in library science in 1961. During this period she worked as a public librarian in nearby Mount Vernon, New York. In 1968 Lorde was writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi leading workshops with young black undergraduate students eager to discuss civil rights issues. Her book Cables to Rage emerged from experiences at Tougaloo addressing themes of love betrayal childbirth and raising children. From 1972 to 1987 Lorde resided on Staten Island where she co-founded Kitchen Table Women of Color Press. In 1977 she became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press which works to increase communication between women. Lorde taught in the Education Department at Lehman College from 1969 to 1970 then as professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice from 1970 to 1981. There she fought for creation of a black studies department. In 1981 she went on to teach at Hunter College as distinguished Thomas Hunter chair. As queer Black woman she was outsider in white male dominated field and these experiences deeply influenced work. New fields such as African American studies and women's studies advanced topics scholars addressed and garnered attention to groups previously rarely discussed.