Lorde articulated early on the intersections of race, class, and gender in canonical essays such as вЂњThe MasterвЂ™s Tools Will Not Dismantle the MasterвЂ™s House.вЂќ Indeed, LordeвЂ™s contributions to feminist theory, critical race studies, and queer theory intertwine her personal experiences with broader political aims. Her experiences with teaching and pedagogy-as well as her place as a Black, queer woman in white academia-went on to inform her life and work. She also began teaching as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College. In 1972, Lorde met her long-time partner, Frances Clayton. She had two children with her husband, Edwin Rollins, a white, gay man, before they divorced in 1970. She was a librarian in the New York public schools throughout the 1960s. Lorde earned her BA from Hunter College and MLS from Columbia University. And when I couldnвЂ™t find the poems to express the things I was feeling, thatвЂ™s what started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen.вЂќ In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. People would say, well what do you think, Audre. I would read poems, and I would memorize them. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black Women Writers: вЂњI used to speak in poetry. She attended Catholic schools before graduating from Hunter High School and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still a student there. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. This time, she chose to pursue alternative treatments rather than to opt for more surgery.A self-described вЂњblack, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,вЂќ Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. The cancer later spread to her liver and this latest battle with the disease informs the essay collection, A Burst of Light (1989). Instead, she considered herself-and other women like her - to be warriors. Having undergone a mastectomy, Lorde refused to be victimized by the disease. In terms of her nonfiction work, she is best remembered for The Cancer Journals (1980), in which she documents her own struggle with breast cancer. In addition to poetry, Lorde was a powerful essayist and writer. Throughout her poetry and other writings she tackled topics that were important to her as a woman of color, lesbian, mother and feminist.

It is considered one of her greatest works by many critics. In this volume, Lorde explored her African heritage. With the publication of Coal by a major book company in 1976, Lorde began to reach a larger audience. After graduating in 1959, she went on to get a masterвЂ™s degree in library science from Columbia University in 1961. She attended Hunter College, working to support herself through school. Lorde's love of poetry started at a young age, and she began writing as a teenager. Early LifeДЄudre Geraldine Lorde was born on February 18, 1934, in New York City, and went on to become a leading African American poet and essayist who gave voice to issues of race, gender and sexuality. Lorde also wrote the memoirs The Cancer Journals (1980) and A Burst of Light (1988). More successful collections followed, including From a Land Where Other People Live (1973) and The Black Unicorn (1978). Audre Lorde wrote the poetry collections 'From a Land Where Other People Live' and 'The Black Unicorn,' as well as memoirs like 'A Burst of Light.' Who Was Audre Lorde?ДЄudre Lorde attended Hunter College and Columbia University and was a librarian for several years before publishing her first volume of poetry, First Cities, in 1968.

Edwin rollins