Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

(this text can also be heard in the audio clip)

Audre Geraldine Lorde was born in New York City in 1934 and grew up as the daughter of Caribbean immigrants. She discovered her passion for poetry at an early age and used it as a means of expression. After graduating, Lorde worked as a librarian, among other things, and became an active part of New York’s homosexual subculture. She describes Greenwich Village and its queer culture in her “mythobiographical” book “Zami”. In 1978, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and published her experience with the mastectomy and its consequences in her “cancer journals”.

Audre Lorde has a vision of a world without oppression and exploitation. She takes a literary look at a profit-oriented social structure that despises people and nature, and reveals its foundations in colonialism and the enslavement of African people. While she relentlessly names social contradictions, her language is wonderfully poetic.

Lorde was invited by Dagmar Schultz, a professor, feminist and publisher, to become a visiting professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin in 1984. In the divided city, she found a space in which she could explore and express her different identities as a black woman, a lesbian woman and a poet. Berlin offered her a unique perspective on issues of race, gender and sexuality in a European context. She encouraged Afro-German women to confidently explore their identity and history. Lorde’s commitment was instrumental in strengthening the Afro-German women’s movement. She initiated the book “Farbe bekennen” / “Show your colours. Afro-German women on the trail of their history”, a groundbreaking collection of texts by Afro-German women.

At Freie Universität, Audre Lorde influenced an entire generation of students with her ideas on intersectionality and empowerment. She became a cult figure for young feminists of all skin colors, introducing them to new ways of thinking that are now taken for granted. Lorde held readings and workshops at the Schokofabrik women’s center in Kreuzberg. It was an important meeting place for feminist and queer activists.

Audre Lorde’s open declaration of her lesbian identity and her commitment to the rights of queer people had a strong influence on Berlin’s queer scene. Her poems and essays often address the intersections of racism, sexism and homophobia. In Berlin, she found a community of lesbian activists who openly discussed intersectionality and the challenges within the white women’s movement. She encouraged Black women and women of color in particular to live their sexuality openly and to stand up against discrimination.

Lorde always emphasized the importance of self-definition and self-empowerment. Her famous quote “Your silence will not protect you” became a motto for many people in discriminated communities.

Audre Lorde lived in several places in Berlin, including Schöneberg, in 1989 at Zietenstrasse 8 and in 1990 at Cheruskerstrasse 6.

She died in 1992 as a result of cancer on the island of St. Croix (USA), where she lived with her partner Gloria Joseph.

Her influence on Berlin can still be felt today. She inspired the founding of the ISD, Initiative of Black People in Germany and the Afro-German Women association ADEFRA. The Audre Lorde Archive was established at the Freie Universität Berlin in 2012 and the documentary film “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years, 1984-1992” had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the same year. In 2023, Audre Lorde was honored with the inauguration of Audre Lorde Street and thus permanently immortalized in the cityscape.