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4.59 AVERAGE
4.59 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Sister Outsider is a beautiful collection of essays and was my first introduction to Audre Lorde. The unfortunate paradox of reading classics (even modern classics) is that, even if fresh at the time of writing, the best ideas presented in the book feel overly familiar. Therefore, while the writing was excellent, certain portions felt repetitive and I struggled to remain engaged with the text.
Recommended if you're interested in intersectional feminist theory, travel stories, and reflections at the intersection of personal and political. As always, my rating reflects my personal enjoyment of the book as opposed to its literary merit - 2.75 stars on SG, rounded up to 3 on GR.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Simply put, every feminist identified, socialist or communist identified, non man of color (specifically Black people), soils read this book. These essays and speeches are masterful. “Uses of the Erotic” Is my bible. If you don’t read Sister Outsider, at least read “Uses of the Erotic”
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
“Audre Lorde’s voice is central to the development of contemporary feminist theory. She is at the cutting edge of consciousness.” ~Nancy K. Bereano, December 1983
One of the great gifts of reading, if you do it long enough, and hard enough, is that you have a greater awareness of all there is that you do not know. Lorde is, herself, a conveyer of such gifts. This brilliant, Black, lesbian, feminist poet brings to light an abundance of disparities between what is our perception and what is her reality; not to build walls, but to tear them down.
What makes her a National Treasure is not just what she says, but also how she says it. Sister Outsider bridges that gap between poetry and prose, occupying that space somewhere between heart and mind - it is both and it is neither.
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference... is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unthreatening. Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate...”
Lorde died of cancer in November, 1992. She was 58 years old. I feel what can be said of Sylvia Plath and Christopher Hitchens can most certainly be said of Audre Lorde; we are all a little worse for the loss.
“I have suckled the wolf’s lip of anger and I have used it for illumination, laughter, protection, fire in places where there was no light, no food, no sisters, no quarter. We are not goddesses or matriarchs or edifices of divine forgiveness; we are not fiery fingers of judgement or instruments of flagellation; we are women forced back always upon our women’s power. We have learned to use anger as we have learned to use the dead flesh of animals, and bruised, battered, and changing, we have survived and grown and, in Angela Wilson’s words, we ARE moving on.”
One of the great gifts of reading, if you do it long enough, and hard enough, is that you have a greater awareness of all there is that you do not know. Lorde is, herself, a conveyer of such gifts. This brilliant, Black, lesbian, feminist poet brings to light an abundance of disparities between what is our perception and what is her reality; not to build walls, but to tear them down.
What makes her a National Treasure is not just what she says, but also how she says it. Sister Outsider bridges that gap between poetry and prose, occupying that space somewhere between heart and mind - it is both and it is neither.
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference... is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unthreatening. Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate...”
Lorde died of cancer in November, 1992. She was 58 years old. I feel what can be said of Sylvia Plath and Christopher Hitchens can most certainly be said of Audre Lorde; we are all a little worse for the loss.
“I have suckled the wolf’s lip of anger and I have used it for illumination, laughter, protection, fire in places where there was no light, no food, no sisters, no quarter. We are not goddesses or matriarchs or edifices of divine forgiveness; we are not fiery fingers of judgement or instruments of flagellation; we are women forced back always upon our women’s power. We have learned to use anger as we have learned to use the dead flesh of animals, and bruised, battered, and changing, we have survived and grown and, in Angela Wilson’s words, we ARE moving on.”
My loan ran out on my library auidobook :( I put another hold on it
reflective
slow-paced
Lorde helped set the foundation for intersectional feminism, and this is a good summary of the foundation she set, but there’s something about this that I Do Not Vibe With and I find that very frustrating about myself
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced