The Audre Lorde Project
"Remembering Audre Lorde: In Celebration
of Black Women Writers, Scholars,
Artists and Activists"
The Audre Lorde Project
The Audre Lorde Project will enable the College to increase public awareness and understanding about African American gay and lesbian experiences; increase awareness about the marginalization of racial issues in the GLBT movement; initiate a series of student-driven workshops and other activities that aim to combat homophobia in the Atlanta University Center community; and contribute to the production of scholarship on lesbian feminist writer/activist, Audre Lorde through the cataloging and digitalization of the Lorde Papers which are housed in the Spelman College Archives.
A highlight of the Project will be a symposium that celebrates the Women’s Center’s anniversary and the work of Audre Lorde–“Remembering Audre Lorde: Celebrating Black Women Scholars, Writers and Activists.” Symposium panels will include “LGBT Issues in the African Diaspora,” “The Future of Black Feminism,” “Global Women’s Movements,” and “Women’s Health, Sexuality, and Pleasure.” Participants at this historic gathering of women from around the globe include writer and critic, bell hooks; Leslie Feinberg, author of the groundbreaking Transgender Warriors; Helge Emde, Afro-German activist; feminist activist/writer, Gloria Joseph; Chandra Mohanty, professor of women’s studies at Syracuse University; and South African gender activist, Bernadette Muthien. The project is consistent with the Spelman College mission of educating and nurturing the development of future leaders who appreciate the many cultures of the world and commit to positive social change, including the eradication of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Audre Lorde was one of the most significant and influential Black, lesbian, feminist writer/activist/educators of the 20 th century. She held numerous teaching posts; formed coalitions between Afro-German and Afro-Dutch women; founded a sisterhood in South Africa; was a co-founder of Kitchentable Women of Color Press; and established the St. Croix Women’s Coalition where she was living at the time of her death in 1992 from breast cancer. Her writings include The First Cities (1969), her first book of poetry; Cancer Journals; Zami (1982); and Sister Outsider (1984), perhaps her most well known book.
Lorde’s visit to the Spelman campus in the late 80s was significant because for the first time in our history, an out, Black lesbian feminist scholar/writer spoke openly to our students and faculty about the need to break silences about sexuality issues within Black communities and at Black colleges. The gift of her personal papers to the Spelman Archives in the aftermath of her visit underscored the importance of the college as an important repository for the work of contemporary black women. The material is the most comprehensive documentation of Lorde’s life and work as a black feminist writer/activist.
The project celebrates the work of Audre Lorde and remembers the short and tragic life of Sakia Gunn, the fifteen year old black girl from Newark, whose murder on May 14, 2006, ignited a movement and led to New Jersey’s first bias-murder prosecution. Gunn was stabbed to death when she and four friends were attacked by two men after rejecting their sexual advances and declaring themselves to be lesbians. Violence against women and GLBT black people are issues that Audre Lorde foregrounded in her life long struggle for human rights, civil rights, and gender justice. In his discussion of the mission of the foundation he created, President Jon Stryker applauds those courageous people who defend these rights and bring dignity to these causes.
