Audre Lorde was a writer, feminist, and civil rights activist. Born in New York City in 1934, Lorde was the daughter of Caribbean immigrants. She grew up in Harlem and attended Hunter College, where she graduated with a degree in library science. She went on to earn a master's degree in literature from Columbia University.
Lorde's writing focused on issues of race, gender, and sexuality, and she is best known for her collections of poetry, which include "The Black Unicorn" and "The Cancer Journals." In addition to her writing, Lorde was an active participant in the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. She was a co-founder of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color, and she served as the poet laureate of New York State from 1991 until her death in 1992.
Lorde's activism centered around the idea that all people have the right to be heard and seen, and that everyone's voice is important. She believed that social change could only come about through the collective action of marginalized communities, and she worked tirelessly to empower those communities through her writing and activism.
Lorde's legacy lives on through her poetry and her work as an activist, which continues to inspire and empower people to this day. Her ideas and insights into issues of race, gender, and sexuality remain just as relevant now as they were during her lifetime.