No more class, race, sex, and sexuality divides, for everyone is equal. ‘Women are stronger when we all stand together.’ Yes. Years before the term ‘intersectionality’ was coined by law scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989,  Lorde’s work embodied it. Throughout Your Silence Will Not Protect You, Lorde’s poetry and prose is more concerned with doing than saying, with taking action as a fundamental tenet of any true radical politics. So, too, was Lorde herself. Instead, her essays swing between lyrical musings about race, class, gender and sexuality, and bold statements of fact, backed up by evidence from her own academic research, and that of her peers. Audre Lorde speaks so directly to the many unarticulated anxieties experienced by Black women—symptoms of the … by Dr. Shondrika Moss-Bouldin “Your silence will not protect you” is a powerful statement written by Audre Lorde, a powerful writer who was a famous advocate for gender rights during her life. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change". Knowing one’s history is important; speaking up about it is essential. Its book covers popping up everywhere. Audre Lorde. Kay reviewed Your Silence Will Not Protect You for the New Statesman and this lovely passage perhaps conveys Lorde’s spirit better than any other. This fact is quoted on the jacket of Your Silence Will Not Protect You, a new edition of Lorde’s writing published by the young feminist publisher Silver Press, and has been repeated often in the rush of media that has accompanied the book’s publication. In her writing, Lorde emphasises the importance of loving one another: yes, radicalism is forged by hard work, but love makes this work so much easier to do. Silence is the deadliest weapon” –Marlon Riggs, from Tongues Untied “My silences had not protected me. ‘The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action’ ends with: The fact we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of the differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilises us, but silence. She recalls, "And while we’d be trying to speak to them as women, all we’d hear is, "The revolution is here, right?'. [3][4], The collection is made up of five sections. Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems | Lorde, Audre, Ahmed, Sara, Eddo-Lodge, Reni | ISBN: 9780995716223 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon. The concept of social identities intersecting to produce a whole separate from the two halves is addressed on every page, in every poetic stanza. Lorde applies this same ethic to her activism with reminders throughout her writing that true, lasting change is only born once we have worked for it. Each work in … Her first collection of poems, The First Cities, was published when she was 34. Perhaps this is an obvious observation to make, but it’s an important one. Speaking up is powerful, Lorde’s writing tells us, but speaking up to spark action should be at the heart of our politics. I was struck by how she had refused to wear a prosthesis – covering things up was not in Audre’s nature. She died 58 years later from cancer in the Virgin Islands, leaving behind two children (with her ex-husband) and over a dozen works of published poetry and prose. In "A Conversation between Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich" Lorde states, "That this was the most we could do, while we constructed some saner future. She speaks to the dichotomy of sexuality, and in particular how women have been suppressed from utilizing its power. that while it is most desirable not to be afraid, learning to put fear into a perspective gave me great strength. Your silence will not protect you. Nothing could be further from the truth. Cowan is mentioned in Lorde’s writing multiple times, including in the dedication for her poem ‘Need: A Choral of Black Women’s Voices’ that reads ‘for Patricia Cowan and Bobbie Jean Graham and the Hundreds of Other Mangled Black Women whose Nightmares Inform Them My Words’. These trials are liminal spaces between one place and the next; the poem is ‘for those of us who live at the shoreline/ standing upon the constant edges of decision’ and ‘who love in doorways coming and going/ in the hours between dawns’. Your silence will not protect you. She states, "My silences had not protected me. Throughout her writing, Audre Lorde’s analysis continually looks ahead, at the positive consequences of taking action, of speaking and recognising your truths. What is most important ‘must be spoken’, she writes, over and over, if we are to have any positive change. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Your silence will not protect you,” warns Audre Lorde in her paper The Transformation of Silence Into Language And Action. I had made contact.” -Audre Lorde . And it was the concern and caring of all those women which gave me strength and enabled me to scrutinize the essentials of my … In her essays specifics are important, and Lorde constantly refers to the canon of black feminist history as a means of contextualising the world around her. Her poetry is a powerful example of that shift in action. Even if you are not prepared to listen to what women of colour have to say about racism, the facts and figures bear out. In ‘Scratching the Surface’, Lorde’s lens zooms in on West African lesbian marriage before focusing on the heterosexual black women who claim that ‘to endorse lesbianism [is] to endorse the death of our race’. The prose that emerges from this place snaps and crackles, and every other sentence feels quotable: ‘every black woman in America lives her life somewhere along a wide curve of ancient and unexpressed angers’; ‘there are no new ideas. It hasn’t always been easy to access Lorde’s ideas: a full collection of Lorde’s poetry and prose has not been available in Britain until now. A country that is not marked on a map does not exist by the way – be the reason for its absence what it may. [1][2] The collection focuses on key themes such as: shifting language into action, silence as a form of violence, and the importance of history. – Marlon Riggs, from Tongues Untied “My silences had not protected me. There’s a clarity to Audre Lorde’s writing that becomes most apparent when you are presented with a collection of her work. In this essay, Lorde argues for speaking—the voice—as an essential, if not the most essential, activist tool. Step Recognition Consciousness. Above all, 'Your Silence Will Not Protect You' is about how important it is for humanity to work together, to love one another indiscriminately, healthily, in order to achieve universal freedom. "Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde review – prophetic and necessary", "Audre Lorde's 'Your Silence Will Not Protect You' - The White ReviewThe White Review", "Your Silence Will Not Protect YouYour Silence Will Not Protect You By LordeAudre (London: Silver Press, 2017), 230 pp. The instant you base the value of your words on the absence of social disapproval, you become a perpetually frustrated player in a zero-sum game. Skrivarkurs för kvinnor och transpersoner på Kvinnofolkhögskolan i Göteborg med 25% studietakt över ett år och fem fysiska träffar. She argued that those who are poor, Black, older, lesbians, and the different intersections of these groups, have been made to stand alone and unpopular. Throughout her essays Lorde reiterates the importance of language and, above all, the importance of shifting language into action. Her international focus and socialist principles were central to her feminism – she was a strong proponent of feminist solidarity movements, from South Africa to Germany to her home in New York. As Lorde said herself, ‘your silence will not protect you’ (also the title of a book of poetry, speeches and essays). This collection’s seminal first essay, ‘The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action’, lays out themes that recur throughout the book. This references her belief in speaking for oneself and taking language into action. Something is wrong when Black women are conspicuously missing from an Audre Lorde reading and discussion group. Cowan’s name, written into Lorde’s work and subsequently living on years after her death, is representative of Lorde’s insistence that we use history to inform the feminist future she looks towards. Lorde, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants, was born almost legally blind and tongue tied in New York in 1934. November 29, 2019 November 29, 2019 TheChallengerNews The Politics of Participation by Kicia Coldspring. As Lorde herself writes in the book’s early essay ‘Poetry Is Not a Luxury’: Women have survived. This collection contains 13 essays and 17 poems, with the essays also including various speeches Lorde made. Friday, August 17, 2007 Weekend: Your Silence Will Not Protect You (Audre Lorde) " I have come to believe, over and over again, that what is important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood." Photo: Sofioksanen.com. Lorde called for recognition and representation of the differences between women, in an effort to fight inequality and survival. But for me to assume that you will not hear me represents not only history, perhaps, but an old pattern of relating […] which we, as women shaping out future, are in the process of shattering and passing beyond, I hope. Despite the miseries of remembering the past, Lorde shows that this knowledge is vital when it comes to outlining the work that still needs to be done. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" I am who I am, doing what I came to do, acting upon you like a drug or chisel to remind you of your me-ness as I discover you in myself. Sofi Oksanen: Your Silence Will Not Protect You. [4], Your Silence Will Not Protect You was published posthumously in order to bring together Lorde's essential poetry, speeches, and essays, into one volume for the first time. [5], In "A Poem For Women in Rage", Lorde imagines a Black woman intending to kill a white woman waiting for her lesbian lover. Some of the poems-'Equinox' is one of them-come from then". Your Silence Will Not Protect You… In fact, it may kill you. She argues that while accepting and acknowledging the best parts of oneself are important, it is equally important to recognize the dark parts as well.[4]. Lorde’s words resound with power and clarity, and the quotable simplicity of her language has resulted in some of her phrases becoming mantras within activist circles, feminist conferences and discussions on social justice. Your silence will not protect you,” warns Audre Lorde in her paper The Transformation of Silence Into Language And Action. Your silence will not protect you. We must acknowledge the past while simultaneously recognising the continuity of the present. ‘A Litany for Survival’s’ closing words – ‘it is better to speak/ remembering/ we were never meant to survive’ – could be used to summarise the entirety of Lorde’s writing. The words kept coming to mind today at my first ever USCA conference. It is the first time a British publisher collected Lorde's work into one volume. Through her writing, Lorde positions herself as a mouthpiece for history. [3] But that we were in that kind of peril. The poem is made of a series of one-sentence stanzas that feel almost religious in the way the plainly adorned lines of prose describe the troubles the oppressed must survive. Love is a recurring motif for both what we desire but also what we are afraid of. The same year John F. Kennedy fell off a roof, she describes how her house burnt down with no one in it, and the next day Malcolm X was shot dead. It is is clear, however, that this will not be an easy task. 11 22 2011 – LOVE DOG     For months Hamlet has been floating around. So revolutionary acts, too, need to always be reacting to new knowledge, new interpretations. [1] [2] The collection focuses on key themes such as: shifting language into action, silence as a form of violence, and the importance of history. Audre Lorde. [4], "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" discussed how each person has both used and unused types of power. Historical fact is constantly shifting or, more specifically, the knowledge we have of the past evolves with time. We have hidden that fact in the same place where we have hidden our power […] They are made realisable through our poems that give us the strength and courage to see, to feel, to speak, and to dare. My silences had not protected me. She takes out this rage on this hypothetical person in the poem to exhibit her anger over such inequalities. Lorde is more than one thing, as are we all, and it is crucial to view these facets of ourselves as more than identity, but as a reflection of the societal oppressions we face under capitalism. This ‘ speaking as ’ is necessary to achieving true understanding, empathy,. New ways of making them felt ’ times of revolution ways of making them felt ’ this is obvious! 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