To close the celebration of Black History Month we would like to dedicate AIR#07 post to the life and work of Audre Lorde.
Audre Geraldine Lorde (Harlem, NYC, Feb. 18, 1934 - Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands, Nov. 17, 1992) was a self-described "Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet", but she went far beyond as a philosopher, writer, librarian, professor, a person with disabilites and an activist. Her life was a succession of stages through philosophical knowledge and political activity that led her to become a ineludible reference in American culture and philosophy during the second half of the 20th century.
The archival legacy of Lorde is spread through different institutions. The majority of Lorde's documents is at the Spelman College Archives in Atlanta, as stated by the writer before prematurely passing away in 1992. As per the finding aid, the collection includes books, correspondence, poetry, prose, periodical contributions, manuscripts, diaries, journals, audiovisual recordings, and a host of biographical and miscellaneous material.
There is an important evidence of Lorde's public presence at the Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA) in New York City, last month we celebrated its 50th anniversary at AIR#06. LHA holds the
Audre Lorde Audio Recordings, 1977 - 1986. The cassettes in this collection were depositated at LHA by various donors. They document various public events including the 1979 National March on Washingotn for Gay and Lesbian Rights, a 1982 poetry reading, and writing and conferences in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Another institution where we find Lorde's presence is at the New York Public Library. NYPL contains five collections related to Lorde, including the documentary film and production files of Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community; the Joseph Beam papers; the In The Live Archive (ITLA); and the Alexis De Veaux papers and audiovisual recordings. The majority of which are kept at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Documentation about Audre Lorde can also be found at the other side of the Atlantic.
The years spent by Lorde in Germany are documented in the Digital Audre Lorde Archive managed by the John F. Kennedy Institute for North-American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. The original media of the Audre Lorde Archive are kept by the FU's Archive. Through a joint project of the John F. Kennedy Institute and the University Archive, the extensive materials that include audio recordings of all seminar sessions and many poetry readings were indexed, archived and made accessible to the public. The Library of the JFKI presents
selected digitized collection items on its webiste.
Finally, we want to highlight a post by Christina Violeta Jones at
Rediscovering Black History, a NARA blog, that talks about the FBI case file on Lorde, wich is available through the National Archives Catalog
100-NY-12142, vol. 1(NAID 12568140). This brief case file mostly involves Lorde being questioned on several occasions regarding her and her friends' ties to the Communist Party (CPUSA). The investigation started in 1954, when Lorde was studying at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. Although Lorde claimed not to be a member of CPUSA, she did give the impression to the FBI that she followed the party's philosophy.
This post also wants to celebrate the 91st anniversary of Audre Lorde's bithday this past February 18th. Her voice is still very much alive, providing us with light and hope for the troubled times we are currently experiencing:
[...]
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid.
So its better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive
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