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A review by juushika
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
5.0
A collection of essays, speeches, letters, and various other pieces from a black lesbian feminist poet. The focus of Lorde's work is intersectionality, and her ability to articulate and insist on these overlaps, to explore the complicated ways that they inform her experience and her feminism, is phenomenal. If her arguments feel familiar, it's because it was her work which helped establish them; but these essays don't feel redundant. She puts complicated concepts into remarkably clear language, is self-possessed and self-interrogative, profoundly compassionate and angry, and refuses reductionism even when exploring gendered and racialized archetypes. If anything, her essays feel too relevant; white feminism is still catching up. This isn't perfect in collection--the tone and format is changeable, the content occasionally overlaps, and the tools by which Lorde defines and insists on her identity won't speak to everyone. But the sum effort is far greater than these quibbles.
Some personal highlights: "Frequently, when speaking with men and white women, I am reminded of how difficult and time-consuming it is to have to reinvent the pencil every time you want to send a message." The interview with Adrienne Rich, which provides useful context about Lorde's life and contains a firm and mutually respectful conversation about the emotional labor that minority individuals are not obligated to perform in these discussions. Compelling, disquieting explorations of intra-community discrimination; "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Her work to preemptively claim aspects of her identity, that they cannot be weaponized against her. Lorde has a knack for a powerful, quotable line (it makes sense, given her background in poetry); these lines are even better within the context of a complex, passionate argument.
Some personal highlights: "Frequently, when speaking with men and white women, I am reminded of how difficult and time-consuming it is to have to reinvent the pencil every time you want to send a message." The interview with Adrienne Rich, which provides useful context about Lorde's life and contains a firm and mutually respectful conversation about the emotional labor that minority individuals are not obligated to perform in these discussions. Compelling, disquieting explorations of intra-community discrimination; "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Her work to preemptively claim aspects of her identity, that they cannot be weaponized against her. Lorde has a knack for a powerful, quotable line (it makes sense, given her background in poetry); these lines are even better within the context of a complex, passionate argument.