How the days went
while you were blooming within me
I remember each upon each
the swelling changed planes of my body
and how you first fluttered, the jumped
and I thought it was my heart.
How the days wound down
and the turning of winter
I recall, with out growing heavy
against the wind. I thought
now her hands
are formed, and her hair
has started to curl
now her teeth are done
etx....
"There are no new ideas still waiting in the wings to save us as women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within ourselves -- along with the renewed courage to try them out."
-Audre Lorde
"There are no new ideas still waiting in the wings to save us as women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within ourselves -- along with the renewed courage to try them out."
-Audre Lorde
I'm going to list ones I have read but what are some good ones not on my list that you have enjoyed or at least found interesting that you would recommend to me?
-----------------------------
Here are some I read a while ago and that I really loved or at least found interesting as a Feminist. I read all of these in high school and I feel like I need to read more now. :]
The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan (I think thats like the basic book every feminist reads at some point )
Revolution From Within - Gloria Steinem
Women Sex and Desire: Understanding Sexuality at Every Stage in Your Life - Elizabeth Davis
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler
A Room of One's Own _- Virginia Woolf
The Second Sex - Simone De Beauvoir
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence - Inga Muscio
Full Frontal Feminism - Jessica Valenti
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture - Ariel Levy
He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know- Jessica Valenti
Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape - Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman
The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women - Jessica Valenti
Ok. I really like Jessica Valenti lol
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity - Julia Serano
Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings - miriam Schneir
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches - Audre Lorde
The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power - Audre Lorde
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century - Anne Kingston
Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire - Merri Lisa Johnson
We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists - Melody Berger
Herstory: Women Who Changed the World - Gloria Steinem
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions - Gloria Steinem
Living With Contradictions: Controversies In Feminist Social Ethics -Allison Jaggar
In high school I read lots of bell hooks. She was a famous black feminist with a cool pseudonym. I was in love.
Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
Aint I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism
Feminist Theory from Margin to Center
Communion : The Female Search for Love
All About Love: New Visions
Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
There are others but these are the only ones I have on hand with me here at my place and I cannot remember the others right now. Plus, I need to go to work in a couple hours and I have massive amounts of homework and cleaning to do. lol I have read quite a few books but there are still so many I want to read. I am trying to work in time between my new job, being a full time student, like 5 volunteer jobs, friends, bf, (and yahoo answers) lol to get on this 50 book challenge I just learned about. I have heard a couple other users on here talk about the book challenge and on live journal. So I am going to try to do this but I think it might be more like 50 books in 2 years instead of one. lol
Anyway thanks in advance!
In 1974, her collection Diving Into the Wreck received the National Book Award for Poetry; Rich, however, refused the award individually, instead joining with two other female poets (Alice Walker and Audre Lorde) to accept it on behalf of all silenced women.
The lead must capture the reader's attention.
Any good ones??
I would like to do this quote, but I don't know how to start off saying it:
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.
--Audre Lorde
i am looking for a theme to the poem hanging fire by audre lorde. the author is a black lesbian and the 14 yr old girl in the poem is black.
thanks again
Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde
I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his tumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before the morning comes
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I de before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth aout me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
has anyone read hanging fire by audre lorde. it is one of the poems i have to write a paper on and it is a bit complicated for me. i would appreciate any info or a website where i could find something without buying one of those papers. thanks again
Give me fire and I will sing you morning
Finding you heart
And a birth of fruit
For you, a flame that will stay beauty
Song will take us by the hand
And lead us back to light.
Give me fire and I will sing you evening
Asking you water
And quick breath
No farewell winds like a willow switch
Against my body
But a voice to speak
In a dark room.
hello, can u guys help me with some of your insight on the poem "Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde........... What type of literary devices does she incorporate, how are they used, etc et etc...
Hanging Fire
by Audre Lorde
I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his tumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before the morning comes
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I de before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth aout me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
Hanging Fire
by Audre Lorde
I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his thumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before morning
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I die before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth about me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed
Can YOU puhhhlease, help?
I have to re-write a poem, using the same ideas but i cant say the same thing or it will be plagerizeing! Ugggh.
here it is:
Hanging Fire
Audre Lorde
______________
I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his tumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before the morning comes
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I de before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth aout me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.
THANKS<3
Standing up for ourselves is not only big part or our history, but will be a huge part of our future. Message to the grass roots by Malcolm X, From Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, and The transformation of silence into language and action by Audre Lorde are all works which have inspired many and will continue to do so, to stand up for what we believe in and justice. Our leaders have given us the foundation to achieve greatness and it is our duty to do so.
this is for my final paper i was hopeing that you can read it and see it anyhting is missing or needs to be added
thank you soo muchh
We all have the tools needed to stand up for ourselves and what’s right but many choose not to use it. This tool is our voice and our freedom of speech. “The Transformation of Silence into language and action” by Audre Lorde proves how important our speech is and remaining silent will not protect you but destroy you. Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Frederick Douglass all used a means of specking out had they not the world would not be as it is today. Not specking put minds and not standing up for what we believe in is as if we are not being ourselves and are allowing others to take our places.
thanks
ok this is my first semester in college and i have a job and go to school full time on top of it all i have to take care of daily houshold chores
also i have REALLY REALLY BAD WRITING SKILLS i make way to many grammer error
Ok here is my essay for my final its not done but its part of it i was hopeing you could look over it and just look it over even if you don't read all of it any bit would help
the essay is on Letter from birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King and Message to the grassroot by malcolm x and other readings but this is what i have so far and how they are about standing up for yourself
Standing up for yourself is one of the many themes in Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. This letter was very powerful and later led to inspire many actions to achieve equality. Message to the grass roots by Malcolm X, From Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, and The transformation of silence into language and action by Audre Lorde support this theme in the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Dr. Martin Luther King wrote this letter in response to a fellow clergymen’s letter sating that breaking the law is not how to achieve equality also saying that this was not Dr. Martin Luther King’s place to be speaking up. King writes this letter in hope to end racism and prejudice. King goes on to answer the clergymen in his remark that king was an outsider and this was not his place. King states in his second paragraph that he is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in ever southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Also not to state that he was an African American and these unjust laws applied to him much as it did to his fellow southern. Dr. Martin Luther King goes on to show the clergymen the unjust laws and how he feels he is not obligated to obey them. King goes on to state that he believes that segregation laws were unjust because African American lives below the standards given to them by the Constitution. This I believe reflected King’s belief that all people should be equal. In Kings Letter he clearly states his views and beliefs to not only stand up for himself but stand up for the equality and justice for all. His actions also show his commitment to his belief.
King latter goes on to state how he was going to achieve his goal. He sates that he will be doing it in an non violent manner which was influenced by Mahatma Ghandi. He also says that this will be done in a well thought out civilized manner. Next he begins to show them some of the actions that the police force took, such as letting dogs loose on the people and their treatment of the people. He states that he saw the dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. He has also observed their inhumane treatment of Negroes in the city jail, how the police force push and kick old Negro man and young boys. They refused the give them food because they wanted to sing their grace together. This was inhumane and unjust. King states facts to back him in what he believes and to get justice for himself.
Although Malcolm X what had the same goals as Dr. Martin Luther King his views and ideas were the furthest from Kings. Malcolm x states his views on how to stand up for himself and the just of the African Americans in Message to the grassroots. Malcolm X’s and Kings views were very different in that Malcolm states in his speech that people like King were “Uncle Toms” and though they were traitors to their race. Malcolm makes a clear statement that he believes that African Americans have a right to self defense. He also agrees that there should be a call foe a revolution but he disagrees that there can not be a non-violent revolution. He then goes on to say that all blacks need to unite against a common enemy which is the white man. Not only does the black man need to go against the whites but also dose every other man. This he backs up with facts about the revolution against colonial rule through out Africa where the rulers were white Europeans. He also mentions the revolutions in the Middle East, Asia witch were also against white Europeans. Another view that Malcolm had was that blacks should not integrate with whites, but they should build a separate nation. “There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion.” This quote backs up Malcolm’s views of being able to stand up for yourself and doing so in a violent manner. Both Malcolm and King have a similar goal of achieving equality but both have very different views.
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH
It can be someone as well know as MLK Jr. of Mother Teresa or as little know as someone like Amartya Sen or Audre Lorde
Why do you admire this person? Do you try to immulate their admirable qualities?
Are there any activists you are critical of? Why?
BratRich: yeah I get what you're saying I just meant little known to the mainstream public. When activism is brought up people automatically think of MLK Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, etc.
I'm having trouble annotating this poem. I need to answer the following questions:
1. How is gender presented in this poem.
2. Comment on the repetition of “I”.
if you could help me i'd greatly appreciate it! 10 points to the most helpful!
The Women of Dan Dance with Swords in Their Hands to Mark the Time When They Were Warriors
By Audre Lorde
I did not fall from the sky
nor descend like a plague of locusts
to drink color and strength from the earth
and I do not come like rain
as a tribute or symbol for earth's becoming
I come as a woman
dark and open
some times I fall like night
softly
and terrible
only when I must die
in order to rise again.
I do not come like a secret warrior
with an unsheathed sword in my mouth
hidden behind my tongue
slicing my throat to ribbons
of service with a smile
while the blood runs
down and out
through holes in the two sacred mounds
on my chest.
I come like a woman
who I am
spreading out through nights
laughter and promise
and dark heat
warming whatever I touch
that is living
consuming
only
what is already dead.
Here is the poem: THANKS!
WHO SAID IT WAS SIMPLE
There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
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 color
as well as sex
and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.
POEM:
It is a waste of time hating a mirror
or its reflection
instead of stopping the hand
that makes glass with distortions
slight enough to pass
unnoticed
until one day you peer
into your face
under a merciless white light
and the fault in a mirror slaps back
becoming
what you think
is the shape of your error
and if I am beside that self
you destroy me
or if you can see
the mirror is lying
you shatter the glass
choosing another blindness
and slashed helpless hands.
Because at the same time
down the street
a glassmaker is grinning
turning out new mirrors that lie
selling us
new clowns
at cut rate
MY QUESTION:
Could someone analyze this poem for me?
At first I was under the impression that this poem symbolizes some sort of inner turmoil within ones self... (regrets, mistakes, realization, etc...)
but I cant help but feel that this poem has something to do with segregation (especially when looking at Lordes biography and poetry history.)
Thanks for the help!
(I havent been on Y!A in ages....)
i have to read the poem "coal" by audre lorde for my english class and write a power essay on it but i dont understand it can somebody please tell me whats its about?? its due by 8 o'clock tonight!
I
is the total black, being spoken
from the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open
how a diamond comes into a knot of flame
how sound comes into a words, coloured
by who pays what for speaking.
Some words are open like a diamond
on glass windows
singing out within the crash of sun
Then there are words like stapled wagers
in a perforated book - buy and sign and tear apart -
and come whatever will all chances
the stub remains
an ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
breeding like adders. Other know sun
seeking like gypsies over my tongue
to explode through my lips
like young sparrows bursting from shell.
Some words
bedevil me
Love is word, another kind of open.
As the diamond comes into a knot of flame
I am Black because I come from the earth's inside
Now take my word for jewel in the open light.
i have to read the poem "coal" by audre lorde for my english class and write a power essay on it but i dont understand it can somebody please tell me whats its about?? its due by 8 o'clock tonight!
No one knows who Audre Lorde is. No one knows who Octavia Butler is. No ones an outcast. (These are all questions I've asked) WTF?! Am I the only weird black girl thinking loner out here?! Am I gonna be alone forever. I don't fit in at school but come on, this is the big wide web on here for yahoo answers. People all over the world come on here and you're telling me that everybody's normal, everybody fits in, no one thinks about werid stuff like I do?! I'm asking this here, b/c I know there's a lot of deep thinkers that come on here, and I don't know, maybe one of you doesn't fit in. If you are out there.... ..
I am a big big reader but I never heard of her before(no surprise there knowing how radical she was) until now. I have this author or genre project I have to do for my english class and my teacher told me about her! Now, She is one of my favorite authors, poets! Anybody else know who she is...tell me what you like about her..and your interests.
Just wondering if anyone knew anything or had any insight on the following essays:
Audre Lorde- Age, Race, Class, and Sex; Women Redefining Different
Bonilla-Silva- Racism without Racists
Donna Langston- Tired of playing Monopoly
If you have read all or any of these and have any feeling or descriptions on them I would love to hear them!
Thanks guys!
I need a visual aid that represents the poem Hanging Fireby Audre Lorde. Like my friend did a poem about a cloud so she brought in cotton balls for everybody. What would be good for Hanging Fire?
Audre Lorde wrote, "The Master's tools can never dismantle the Master's house."
I have always had grave misgivings about this. As a black man, it seemed to me sometimes like a more sophisticated version of accusing people of "acting white", of being "Oreos" or "Toms".
Why can't such tools be used to subversive ends?
And is dismantling the house what we should strive for anyway?
I would prefer to add windows and doors, expand the space, build new rooms, add new levels.
Because it is the only house we have.
Thoughts?
SUPER
I think it can be either.
Why would there be feminist leaders attacking men, when they are lesbians? They obviously have no stake in relationships with men, they will never be married to one or date one, if anyone is going to be "oppressing them in marriage" it would be another woman, so why are feminist leaders like Ti Grace Atkinson, Rita Mae Brown, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Marilyn Frye, Mary Daly, Shiela Jeffreys, Monique Wiitg and whoever wrote The simple fact is that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist." in the National NOW Times, Jan.1988, feminists?
Obviously they are a minority of women, not many other women are lesbians. Most like men. Imagine that all of a sudden members of the opposite sex said they were only attracted to people of a different colour than you (for example). Would that lead to any ill will from you towards people of that colour? Purely hypothetical, but be honest.
Is this the reason there is so much man hating in the feminist leadership?
Couldn't help but notice a bit of bitter competitiveness there Salek. You sure you're not proving my point?
What is this, lesbian pride "please go on the computer and tell him that we are hot" parade?
Sounds insecure to me.
ahaha Salek, ever consider that a "who are you that happens to know who I am and posted to yahoo answers 25 minutes after I posted and 9 minutes after my girlfriend posted to prove I'm hot because I couldn't possibly have any idea" might be a little transparent?
I am searching for an article that appeared in Essence Magazine in August 1984. Revolutionary Hope: A conversation between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. Can you help me find the article?
I am searching for an article that appeared in Essence Magazine in August 1984. Revolutionary Hope: A conversation between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. Can you help me find the article?
NYPL didn't have anything
I am searching for an article that appeared in Essence Magazine in August 1984. "Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde" CAn anyone tell me how to find this article?
I need a question intersecting race sexuality & culture It must include a feminist outlook must be related to the writings of James Baldwin, audre Lorde and estelle freedman, Can someone help me? This is for a question and answer so I must be able to answer it.
I have read the books I need to pullout a question
Anyone read this poem? What does the title have to do with the poem? I have searched and searched on the web and cant find anything!!! I pretty much understand the poem itself, just not the title! Thanks anyone!!
Sorry...Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde
