Audre Geraldine Lorde’s immense and consequential body of work consists of poems, speeches, essays, open letters, interviews, pamphlets, and books. An internationally recognized poet who gave public readings, lectures, and speeches primarily in the United States, she regularly introduced herself as a Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, poet, and mother. Her synthesis of literary work with political activism could be considered public advocacy in that she endeavored to move her readers’ or listeners’ feelings, beliefs, and actions. Rhetorical in this respect, her work was complex, insightful, and instructive in commenting on racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, and other varieties of oftentimes overlapping biases in U.S. culture during the latter half of the twentieth century. In…

3392 words

Citation: Olson, Lester C.. "Audre Lorde". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 March 2011; last revised 29 September 2018. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2792, accessed 03 October 2024.]

2792 Audre Lorde 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.