“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even if her shackles are very different from my own.” — Audre Lorde
It’s almost shameful to admit, but I only discovered the phenomenal Audre Lorde in 2021, during my master’s program in a writing class. Until then, her name had never crossed my path. The first piece I encountered was her powerful poem “A Litany for Survival.” The honesty in those lines pierced me—like a bullet I had carried all along, a weight lodged deep within me yet never spoken aloud.
That moment was the beginning of what I can only call an affair with her words. I troved through libraries and the internet, searching for everything Audre Lorde had left behind: her essays, poetry, novels, and letters.
In her correspondence with Pat Parker, another Black feminist writer of the 1970s, I witnessed the beauty of friendship and the unbreakable solidarity of Black women. Their words to each other revealed not just personal affection but also a radical commitment to freedom, creativity, and survival.
What many don’t know is that Lorde’s activism reached far beyond the United States. She was a global thinker and fighter. She championed women in the Global South, including women’s rights in Nigeria, and is said to have participated in the legendary FESTAC ’77 in Lagos, a Pan-African cultural festival that gathered artists, writers, and activists from across the Black world.
Audre Lorde’s voice remains one of resistance, survival, and possibility. From Harlem to Lagos, her words continue to resonate with women across the globe—reminding us that freedom is never individual, but collective.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147275/a-litany-for-survival
Nun River Pages 
Leave a comment