I AM YOUR SISTER The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality RHONDA Y. WILLIAMS Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White PRUDENCE L. CARTER Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities, and the Call for a Deep Democracy J. PHILLIP THOMPSON, III Party / Politics: Horizons in Black Political Thought MICHAEL HANCHARD In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post–Civil Rights Era RICHARD ITON I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde RUDOLPH P. BYRD, JOHNNETTA BETSCH COLE, AND BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL, EDITORS I Am Your Sister COLLECTED AND UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS OF AUDRE LORDE Edited by RUDOLPH P. BYRD JOHNNETTA BETSCH COLE BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL 1 2009 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. “Eva’s Man by Gayl Jones,” “Self-Defi nition and My Poetry,” “Poet as Teacher—Human as Poet—Teacher as Human,” “Poetry Makes Something Happen,” “My Mother’s Mortar,” “Difference and Survival,” “The First Black Feminist Retreat,” “When Will the Ignorance End?” “Litany of Commitment,” “Commence- ment Address: Oberlin College,” “What Is at Stake in Lesbian and Gay Publishing Today,” “Is Your Hair Still Political?” and “A Burst of Light”: Copyright © 2009 by the Estate of Audre Lorde. “Introduction: Create Your Own Fire: Audre Lorde and the Tradition of Black Radical Thought,” “Audre Lorde: My Shero, My Teacher, My Sister Friend,” and “Epilogue: Bearing Witness: The Legacy of Audre Lorde”: Copyright © 2009 by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta B. Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper We dedicate this book to the friendship the three of us enjoy. It is a friendship that keeps us on each other’s minds and in each other’s hearts; gives us permission to critique each other’s work; and is strengthened by the belief we share with Audre Lorde that “it is not difference that immobilizes us but silence.” This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to express our gratitude to the following institutions for their support and encouragement as we brought I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde to publication: the Spelman College Archives; the Estate of Audre Lorde; the Audre Lorde Collec- tion of the Lesbian Herstory Archives; the Spelman College Women’s Re- search and Resource Center; and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library of the Manuscript, Archive, Rare Book Library of Emory University. Permission to reprint the following selections is also gratefully ac- knowledged: “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” (Ten Speed Press); and “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface” (Aunt Lute Books). We also would like to acknowledge the generosity of three special friends who granted permission to reprint their works in this volume: bell hooks for “Lorde: The Imagination of Justice”; Gloria I. Joseph for “Remembering Audre Lorde”; and Alice Walker for “Audre’s Voice.” I Am Your Sister is published as part of Oxford University Press’s series Transgressing Boundaries, which was conceived and is very ably edited by Cathy J. Cohen and Frederick Harris. We are indebted to them for their support of a collection that will generate new scholarship and teaching on Audre Lorde. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to our partners, friends, and colleagues who advanced this project in vital and signifi - cant ways: Brenda Banks, Cecelia Corbin Hunter, Lydia English, Jeffrey B. Leak, Henry A. Leonard, Ingrid Saunders Jones, Cynthia N. Spence, Taronda Spencer, and James D. Stanton, Jr. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Credits xiii Introduction. Create Your Own Fire: Audre Lorde and the Tradition of Black Radical Thought 3 Rudolph P. Byrd part i. from sister outsider and a burst of light 1. The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action 39 2. Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface 44 3. Sadomasochism: Not About Condemnation: An Interview with Audre Lorde 50 Susan Leigh Star 4. I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities 57 5. Apartheid U.S.A. 64 6. Turning the Beat Around: Lesbian Parenting 1986 73 7. A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer 81 part ii. my words will be there 8.Eva’s Man by Gayl Jones: A Review 153 9. Self-Defi nition and My Poetry 156 10. Introduction: Movement in Black by Pat Parker 158