Survival is a promise : the eternal life of Audre Lorde / Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gumbs, Alexis Pauline, 1982- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lorde, Audre.

Lorde, Audre--Criticism and interpretation.

African American women poets--Biography.

African American women poets.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 511 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024.

Summary:

"A bold, innovative biography that offers a new understanding of the life, work, and enduring impact of Audre Lorde"-- Provided by publisher.

"We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer and a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofits' annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde's teachings on 'the creative power of difference' may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today. Lorde's understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. The focus on Lorde's quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has obscured her deep engagement with the natural world and the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. Lorde's ecological imagery is not merely metaphorical but rather a literal guide to being of Earth on Earth, to survival--to living the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands. In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde's manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Lorde's life and work become more than sound bites; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on Earth."--Book jacket flap copy.

Contents:

Smelling the wind

The winds of the orisha

Prologue

Oya

Ballad from childhood

Story books on a kitchen table

Rites of passage

Naming the stories

Blackstudies

All hallows eve

Good mirros are not cheap

School note

Brother alvin

Inheritance-his

The brown menace

Fantasy and conversation

Poem for a poet

Peace on earth

Generation

Contact lenses

Pirouette

Spring iii

Teacher

The songless lark

Father, the year is fallen

(To marie) in flight

Artisan

Portrait

Naturally

Fishing the white water

Solstice

From the greenhouse

125th st. and abomey

Timing

A child shall lead

A litany for survival

Memorial i-iv

Now

Father son and holy ghost

Za ki tan ke parlay lot

Legacy-hers

Hard rock love

On the edge

Girlfriend

For each of you

Eulogy

Sister morning is a time for miracles

In the house of yemaya

Home

Beams

Relevant is different points on the circle

Afterimages

At first i thought you were talking about

Digging

Future promise

Call

Parting

A question of climate.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [439]-484) and index.

ISBN:

9780241505717

0241505712

9780374603274

0374603278

OCLC:

1393206454