Bereano, who assisted in shaping the collection, recalled: “Audre Lorde informed me, as we were working one afternoon, that she doesn’t write theory. In her still-relevant 1983 Introduction to Sister Outsider, Nancy K. Lorde, who was also a teacher and activist and who died of liver cancer in 1992, argues that black women “have learned to neutralize through ourselves catabolic process throws off waste products of fury even when we love.”Īs I recall my teaching years, the implication of Lorde’s essay is clear: black women must continually reappropriate the energy of our fury into a creative life-force whose power instructs us to mother ourselves and one another. “As with any nurturing work, teaching forces us to confront our best and worst selves, especially when those we aim to instruct look, talk, and act a lot like we do. Though most of the essays in were written in the 1970s and 1980s, the struggles are all too much with us, making her writing and thinking as relevant as ever.Īn essay by Antoinette Dwandu in the Los Angeles Review of Books bears this out eloquently, highlighting the importance of Lorde’s words in the wake of the Charlottesville incident of 2017, especially the constructive use of anger: As demonstrated by the quotes from Sister Outsider that follow, Lorde provides a roadmap for social transformation that begins with change within the individual. This posthumously published compilation features fifteen essential essays and speeches in which Lorde delves into sexism, racism, homophobia, and other oppressions.

The thought-provoking quotes from Sister Outsider presented here bear witness to the depth of Lorde’s commitment to feminism and justice.

Sister Outsider is collection of essays and speeches by Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992), the highly influential writer, speaker, and teacher, self-identified as a Black lesbian poet, and feminist.

The sister outsider