-
Born on February 18, 1934 in New York, New York. Both of her parents were cuban immigrants
-
When she was young she decided to drop the "Y" on her name because she said she liked the artistic symmetry in Audre Lorde and preferred that over how her parents decided to spell her name.
-
She attended a prestigious Catholic grammar school called St. Catherine's School and Hunter College High School
-
She attended Hunter college, Columbia University, and National Autonomous University of Mexico
-
She worked as an X-ray technician, a ghost writer, a medical clerk, a social worker, an arts and crafts supervisor, and a factory worker . She was a librarian until 1967. Then she accepted a job at Tougaloo college were she had been given a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
-
She was married to a man, Edwin Rollins, for 8 years and had two children: Elizabeth Lorde-Rollins and Jonathon Rollins
-
Lorde brought attention to discrimination in many areas by writing and publishing poetry. She primarily focused on sexist issues but wrote poetry on everything she believed, and fought back against people claiming that everyone's experience with discrimination is the same.
-
Audre Lorde published a 77 page book on her dealing with breast cancer and her experience with coming to terms with that and getting a mastectomy. She hoped that writing about her experience would help other women with theirs.
-
On the 20th anniversary of MLKJ 'I Have A Dream Speech', Audre Lorde was granted access to speak by his wife. In this speech she talked about classism, sexism, racism, and brought attention to lesbian and gay rights. It's said that her speech was a "watershed" moment and that Lorde put together the civil rights movement and the gay and lesbian rights movement.
-
Audre died of breast cancer after writing poetry for almost her whole life and fighting for civil rights for almost 30 years.
-
