Emerging from Harlem, New York City where she was born and raised, activist and literary artist Audre Lorde left a lasting impact within the civil rights movements of the 1960s as a Black, lesbian woman.

Lorde had attended various colleges successfully earning her degree in library sciences at Columbia University in 1961 where she then proceeded to fulfill her career as a librarian and a professor. While Lorde’s writing is expansive having scholarly essays, speeches, and books published, she is most well known for her poetry, often deemed “protest poetry” where she raises awareness to the importance of intersectionality within feminism and queer communities. Eloquent and poignant, Lorde articulates the class struggles that she had faced not just from society as a whole, but from the segregated communities in which she is a part of. 

One of my favourite poems that I had recently read in a collection of poems written by Audre Lorde is her poem titled “Who Said It Was Simple,” initially published in her book From a Land Where Other People Live in 1973. She writes from the perspective of a bystander at a women’s rights rally criticizing the privileges of white women and their tendency to uplift themselves at the expense of oppressing others. Lorde’s poem tackles the issue of inauthentic activism, and how the exclusion of others is not true to the movement. 

There are so many roots to the tree of anger   

that sometimes the branches shatter   

before they bear.

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Sitting in Nedicks

the women rally before they march   

discussing the problematic girls   

they hire to make them free.

An almost white counterman passes   

a waiting brother to serve them first   

and the ladies neither notice nor reject   

the slighter pleasures of their slavery.   

But I who am bound by my mirror   

as well as my bed

see causes in colour

as well as sex

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and sit here wondering   

which me will survive   

all these liberations.

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-From a Land Where Other People Live (1973)

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From the opening metaphor of the poem, one can examine that this is a poem that is about the anger and frustrations that Black women experience from the exclusivity that they are subjected to. Using expansive roots and breaking branches to convey the feeling suggests that the resentment the speaker feels holds onto her the way that roots do. The anger gets to a point where it holds on so strongly that the opportunity for growth and flourishment is absent as suggested by the falling branches.

A line that struck out to me the most in the middle portion of the poem were stanzas 10 and 11;

“and the ladies neither notice nor reject   

the slighter pleasures of their slavery.” 

These lines appear to showcase the privileges that white women have over women of colour, and how they are oblivious to such prejudices as it does not affect them. White men will be more receptive to them despite their segregation, simply because they are white. Understanding this to be the root of the speaker's anger is understandable—such injustices should be spoken about as intersectionality is the only true pursuit of equality.

The final portion of the poem where the speaker shares her fears as a woman that is both Black and queer not knowing which part of herself will be uplifted in these civil liberties, suggests that she is not sure of if she will see the day of intersectionality in any of these social communities that she identifies with.

This vulnerable poem is powerful, and can offer some perspective to all readers. Whether you may resonate with Lorde’s poem yourself with your own shared experiences or are a bystander to them, this empathetic poem is a powerful read that I believe should be recognized and encourage one to look further into the realm of activist poetry. The best way to educate oneself on such a subject is to listen to the experiences of those we may not share, or, if you do share the experiences of such a poem, to be able to use it as a form of healing or a stamp of recognition in knowing that you are not alone and that people have been fighting for your justice.

Audre Lorde was undoubtedly an incredibly influential modernist writer, and has become one of my favourite poets after reading her collections of essays and poetry. Lorde, like many other artists in the civil rights movement, should continue to be recognized for her brave and scholarly contributions to the discussion of intersectionality and empathy.