It is very good for establishing perspective. And I remind myself all the time now that if I were to have been born mute, or had maintained an oath of silence my whole life long for safety, I would still have suffered, and I would still die. But we have lived through all of those already, in silence, except death.
And it is never without fear - of visibility, of the harsh light of scrutiny and perhaps judgment, of pain, of death. Because in this way alone we can survive, by taking part in a process of life that is creative and continuing, that is growth.
But primarily for us all, it is necessary to teach by living and speaking those truths which we believe and know beyond understanding. For others, it is to share and spread also those words that are meaningful to us. For those of us who write, it is necessary to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak it. The thought-provoking quotes from Sister Outsider presented here bear witness to the depth of Lorde’s commitment to feminism and justice. In the transformation of silence into language and action, it is vitally necessary for each one of us to establish or examine her function in that transformation and to recognize her role as vital within that transformation. Sister Outsider is collection of essays and speeches by Audre Lorde (1934 1992), the highly influential writer, speaker, and teacher, self-identified as a Black lesbian poet, and feminist. Each of us is here now because in one way or another we share a commitment to language and to the power of language, and to the reclaiming of that language which has been made to work against us.
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