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A Burst of Light
The author discusses her life as a Black lesbian, her struggle against cancer, sadomasochism within the gay community, and apartheid and its relationship to racism in American society
134 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1988
About the author
Audre Lorde
118 books5,914 followersAudre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone."
Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.
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Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 290 reviews
February 27, 2024
Reading this helped me fully realize the way people have bastardized Lorde’s writing and legacy by pulling quotes out of context to justify their own bullshit. Self-care as political acts of resistance for her was having cancer while still actively doing feminist organizing and fighting South African apartheid, the personal as the political for Lorde was about raising her children in an interracial lesbian household to be politically conscious and moral individuals, that poetry and writing were life-giving sources while she organized with her comrades and communities of feminists, lesbians, Black women, etc. Now that I’ve read Sister Outsider, Zami, and now this book, I think I can firmly say that it’s no surprise that her work and legacy continues to vibrantly live on in contemporary culture and discourse. It’s just very irritating that people don’t actually understand or read her for real, and just appropriate whatever pieces of her writing work best for them at the moment to justify themselves over bullshit
August 2, 2017
This book was a revelation of timeless brilliance from an intersectional feminist I can only strive to take lessons from! Highly recommended for anyone committed to social justice efforts!
May 10, 2022
Audre Lorde is a genius and never misses the target. Even now, thirty years after her passing, her words ring relevant and true. Her words and mind and mission remain unparalleled.
March 28, 2019
Another incredible collection examining sex industry, apartheid, lesbian parenting and reality of cancer. Bold, transformative and powerful. I can't recommend Audre Lorde strongly enough. She has always held a special place in my heart with her elegant and simulating messages of racism and women empowerment. One of the most powerful civil right activists I've ever known - she is very focused and has an effective clarity on what she wants to achieve and strategically transforming it into a sustainable and continual effort in peace-building.
"If one black woman I do not know gains hope and strength from my story, then it has been worth the difficulty of telling."
"If one black woman I do not know gains hope and strength from my story, then it has been worth the difficulty of telling."
March 17, 2024
Audre Lorde is one of the most quotable writers out there. Several of her quotes about self-care, love, and liberation, circulate, whether online or offline, and its not necessarily a bad thing, this coming from a person who loves quotes, including Lorde's, and is known to write down those he finds interesting and insightful on a regular basis. That said, quotes, as necessary as they are, can work against the work they represent when they're simply taken, decontextualized and used to serve whatever purpose the quoter wants (I recall several queerphobic individuals freely quoting Audre Lorde and James Baldwin a few years ago) and it is important to read the whole from which the quote is extracted from. This would be a good place for a reader who's reading Audre Lorde for the first time: an interview, speeches, and journal entries.
May 21, 2023
this is mostly her cancer journals, with a few speeches & interviews at the beginning. not a collection i was expecting, really. i think i made a mistake in choosing this one as my introduction into lorde's writing. (and it's interesting that the interview with susan leigh star titled sadomasochism: not about condemnation very much feels like nothing but condemnation)
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August 22, 2014I want to write down everything I know about being afraid, but I'd probably never have enough time to write anything else. Afraid is a country where they issue us passports at birth and hope we never seek citizenship in any other country. The face of afraid keeps changing constantly, and I can count on that change. I need to travel light and fast, and there's a lot of baggage I'm going to have to leave behind me. Jettison cargo. (55, 2/18/1984)
I am excited by these women, by their blossoming sense of identity as they're beginning to say in one way or another, "Let us be ourselves now as we define us. We are not a figment of your imagination or an exotic answer to your desires. We are not some button on the pocket of your longing." (57, 3/23/1984)
I am saving my life by using my life in the service of what must be done. (59, 6/7/1984)
We all have to die at least once. Making that death useful would be winning for me. I wasn't supposed to exist anyway, not in any meaningful way in this fucked-up whiteboys' world. (61, 6/10/1984)
(Of course, all poets learn about feeling as children in our native tongue, and the psycho-social strictures and emotional biases of that language pass over into hwo we think about feeling for the rest of our lives.) (66, 10/10/1984)
As an African-American woman, I feel the tragedy of being an oppressed hyphenated person in America, of having no land to be our primary teacher. And this distorts us in so many ways. (66, 10/10/1984)
It is a matter of learning languages, or of learning to use them with precision to do what needs to be done with them, and it is the Blanchie in myself to whom I need to speak with such urgency. It's one of the great things friends are for each other when you've been very close for a long time.
And of course cancer is political--look at how many of our comrades have died of it during the last ten years! As warriors, our job is to actively and consciously survive it for as long as possible, remembering that in order to win, the aggressor must conquer, but the resisters need only survive. Our battle is to define survival in ways that are acceptable and nourishing to us, meaning (98) with substance and style. (99, 4/20/1986)
When I write my own Book of the Dead, my own Book of Life, I want to celebrate being alive to do it even while I acknowledge the painful savor uncertainty lends to my living. I use the energy of dreams that are now impossible, not totally believing in them nor their poewr to become real, but recognizing them as templates for a future within which my labors can play a part. I am freer to choose what I will devote my energies toward and what I will leave for another lifetime, thanking the goddess for the strength to perceive that I can choose, despite obstacles. (119, 11/12/1986)
I do not find it useful any long to speculate upon cancer as a political weapon. But I'm not being paranoid when I say my cancer is as political as if some CIA agent brushed past me in the A train on march 15, 1965 and air-injected me with a long-fused cancer virus. Or even if it is only that I stood in their wind to do my work and the billows flayed me What possible choices do most of us have in the air we breathe and the water we must drink?
Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time and the arena and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle wherever we are standing. It does not matter too much if it is in the radiation lab or a doctor's office or the telephone company, the streets, the welfare department, or the classroom. The real blessing is to be able to use whoever I am wherever I am, in concert with as many others as possible, or alone if needs be. (120, 11/13/1986)
Five million people in the U.S.--or two percent of the population of this country--are actively living with cancer. If you apply that percentage to the Black community--where it is probably higher bcause of the rising incidence of cancers without a corresponding rise in the cure rate--if we take that percentage into the Black population of 22 million, then every single day there are at least half a million Black people in the U.S. shopping in supermarkets, catching subways, grooming mules, objecting in PTA meetings, standing in a welfare line, teaching Sunday school, walking in the streets at noon looking for work, scrubbing a kitchen floor, all carrying within our bodies the seeds of a destruction not of our own choosing. It is a destruction we can keep from defining our living for as long as possible, if not our dying. Each oen of us must define for ourselves what substance and shape we wish to give the life we have left. (126, 11/18/1986)
I do not think about my death as being imminent, but I live my days against a background noise of mortality and constant uncertainty. Learning not to crumple before these uncertainties fuels my resolve to print myself upon the texture of each day fully rather than forever. (127, 11/19/1986)
To acknowledge privilege is the first step in making it available for wider use. Each of us is blessed in some particular way, whether we recognize our blessings our not. And each one of us, somewhere in our lives, must clear a space within that blessing where she can call upon whatever resources are available to her in the name of something that must be done. (130, 12/15/1986)
I am excited by these women, by their blossoming sense of identity as they're beginning to say in one way or another, "Let us be ourselves now as we define us. We are not a figment of your imagination or an exotic answer to your desires. We are not some button on the pocket of your longing." (57, 3/23/1984)
I am saving my life by using my life in the service of what must be done. (59, 6/7/1984)
We all have to die at least once. Making that death useful would be winning for me. I wasn't supposed to exist anyway, not in any meaningful way in this fucked-up whiteboys' world. (61, 6/10/1984)
(Of course, all poets learn about feeling as children in our native tongue, and the psycho-social strictures and emotional biases of that language pass over into hwo we think about feeling for the rest of our lives.) (66, 10/10/1984)
As an African-American woman, I feel the tragedy of being an oppressed hyphenated person in America, of having no land to be our primary teacher. And this distorts us in so many ways. (66, 10/10/1984)
It is a matter of learning languages, or of learning to use them with precision to do what needs to be done with them, and it is the Blanchie in myself to whom I need to speak with such urgency. It's one of the great things friends are for each other when you've been very close for a long time.
And of course cancer is political--look at how many of our comrades have died of it during the last ten years! As warriors, our job is to actively and consciously survive it for as long as possible, remembering that in order to win, the aggressor must conquer, but the resisters need only survive. Our battle is to define survival in ways that are acceptable and nourishing to us, meaning (98) with substance and style. (99, 4/20/1986)
When I write my own Book of the Dead, my own Book of Life, I want to celebrate being alive to do it even while I acknowledge the painful savor uncertainty lends to my living. I use the energy of dreams that are now impossible, not totally believing in them nor their poewr to become real, but recognizing them as templates for a future within which my labors can play a part. I am freer to choose what I will devote my energies toward and what I will leave for another lifetime, thanking the goddess for the strength to perceive that I can choose, despite obstacles. (119, 11/12/1986)
I do not find it useful any long to speculate upon cancer as a political weapon. But I'm not being paranoid when I say my cancer is as political as if some CIA agent brushed past me in the A train on march 15, 1965 and air-injected me with a long-fused cancer virus. Or even if it is only that I stood in their wind to do my work and the billows flayed me What possible choices do most of us have in the air we breathe and the water we must drink?
Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time and the arena and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle wherever we are standing. It does not matter too much if it is in the radiation lab or a doctor's office or the telephone company, the streets, the welfare department, or the classroom. The real blessing is to be able to use whoever I am wherever I am, in concert with as many others as possible, or alone if needs be. (120, 11/13/1986)
Five million people in the U.S.--or two percent of the population of this country--are actively living with cancer. If you apply that percentage to the Black community--where it is probably higher bcause of the rising incidence of cancers without a corresponding rise in the cure rate--if we take that percentage into the Black population of 22 million, then every single day there are at least half a million Black people in the U.S. shopping in supermarkets, catching subways, grooming mules, objecting in PTA meetings, standing in a welfare line, teaching Sunday school, walking in the streets at noon looking for work, scrubbing a kitchen floor, all carrying within our bodies the seeds of a destruction not of our own choosing. It is a destruction we can keep from defining our living for as long as possible, if not our dying. Each oen of us must define for ourselves what substance and shape we wish to give the life we have left. (126, 11/18/1986)
I do not think about my death as being imminent, but I live my days against a background noise of mortality and constant uncertainty. Learning not to crumple before these uncertainties fuels my resolve to print myself upon the texture of each day fully rather than forever. (127, 11/19/1986)
To acknowledge privilege is the first step in making it available for wider use. Each of us is blessed in some particular way, whether we recognize our blessings our not. And each one of us, somewhere in our lives, must clear a space within that blessing where she can call upon whatever resources are available to her in the name of something that must be done. (130, 12/15/1986)
August 5, 2017
This is a updated and reissued version of her 1988 collection of essays. What's new here is an introduction by Sonia Sanchez, an interview about sadomasochism and three essays along with the original Burst of Light: Living with Cancer journal entries. This book illuminates her struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia and the liver cancer afflicting her body. And she put all of these struggles on the same plain, seeing them as equal. "Battling racism and battling heterosexism and battling apartheid share the same urgency inside me as battling cancer. None of these struggles are ever easy, and even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded, because it is so easy not to battle at all, to just accept and call that acceptance inevitable."
Her essay writing is, forgive the cliché, poetic. Even the journal entries concerning her cancer battle and resistance, which takes up most of the book are sometimes sad but profoundly written. One of her most enduring quotes comes from this collection, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Through her writing you can sense and feel her struggle, almost as if she is thinking out loud but always representing for a fierce self-determination and self-identity that is empowering. Her words here are inspirational, loving, passionate and forever optimistic. An essay collection that belongs on your book shelf. Thanks to Netgalley and Dover Press for providing an advanced ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review. Book publishes Sept. 13, 2017
Her essay writing is, forgive the cliché, poetic. Even the journal entries concerning her cancer battle and resistance, which takes up most of the book are sometimes sad but profoundly written. One of her most enduring quotes comes from this collection, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Through her writing you can sense and feel her struggle, almost as if she is thinking out loud but always representing for a fierce self-determination and self-identity that is empowering. Her words here are inspirational, loving, passionate and forever optimistic. An essay collection that belongs on your book shelf. Thanks to Netgalley and Dover Press for providing an advanced ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review. Book publishes Sept. 13, 2017
September 1, 2017
I feel so humbled and grateful that Audre Lorde shared some of her writing while battling cancer. This was an emotional and powerful read.
March 21, 2018
Phenomenal read! Very relevant to our current political, social, and economic climate even today. The tone feels as if it were written presently. A beautiful forward by Sonia Sanchez.
August 23, 2022
Enjoyable and fairly brief collection, with her cancer journals taking up about 2/3 of the book and then a few essays/speeches added onto the beginning. I wouldn't say this is the best introduction to her work, but solid if you're more familiar with her. The only bit I really didn't like was the essay, "Sadomasochism: Not About Condemnation (An Interview with Audre Lorde)" by Susan Leigh Star, which felt pretty exactly like a condemnation. This really read like somebody who doesn't actually know much about BDSM or S/m because she was really conflating terms and making some pretty broad and sweeping claims. Frankly, her stance on this one shocked me, and not in a good way.
August 24, 2017
Full review!
Format: eBook ARC from NetGalley
In this collection of essays and journal entries, originally published in 1988, Audre Lorde writes frankly, clearly, and with full humanity about her experience as a Black Lesbian woman and her second experience with cancer.
My initial impulse is to call this collection something like "transcendent" but honestly, that would not be accurate. Because while it has the insight, power, and clarity of a work that someone might describe as transcendent, that word would really mis-categorize this work. This is not a work meant to go beyond or transcend anything, but rather to shed an unflinching light on the reality of Lorde's experience. If this book is anything, it is very clearly grounded in reality and Lorde's ability to describe that reality in such beautiful and sometimes harsh terms illuminates the truths that she wants to highlight.
There is no hiding from the truths in this collection because the truths are not masked by any kind of metaphor and they are not softened by language. Lorde is demanding that readers understand what she is trying to say, she demands that readers recognize the truth of her experience (and the experience of other Black and Lesbian women in the USA and across the world) and that readers recognize the ways that they may be complicit in that social structure. She stands in front of you (and audiences within the stories of this book) and demands to know where exactly the consideration of her and other women like her is. Where are the black women? Have you considered how people of color have been made to suffer for you to stand where you are standing? How have you benefitted from racism, ableism, sexism, and heterosexism and are your current actions helping prop up those systems and tear them down?
Lorde demands that readers consider these questions, demands that I consider these questions.
I will also say what should really go unsaid, that Lorde is a truly spectacular writer with the ability to manipulate readers' emotions with razor-like precision. Though this is a skill she must have fine-tuned in her poetry, it also shines clearly through in this collection.
Although I received this book as an advanced copy for the new edition coming out this September, I will be purchasing a hard copy of the new edition when it becomes available. I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars and I am excited to continue to explore Lorde's work.
Note: some of my reviews contain spoilers!
Format: eBook ARC from NetGalley
In this collection of essays and journal entries, originally published in 1988, Audre Lorde writes frankly, clearly, and with full humanity about her experience as a Black Lesbian woman and her second experience with cancer.
My initial impulse is to call this collection something like "transcendent" but honestly, that would not be accurate. Because while it has the insight, power, and clarity of a work that someone might describe as transcendent, that word would really mis-categorize this work. This is not a work meant to go beyond or transcend anything, but rather to shed an unflinching light on the reality of Lorde's experience. If this book is anything, it is very clearly grounded in reality and Lorde's ability to describe that reality in such beautiful and sometimes harsh terms illuminates the truths that she wants to highlight.
There is no hiding from the truths in this collection because the truths are not masked by any kind of metaphor and they are not softened by language. Lorde is demanding that readers understand what she is trying to say, she demands that readers recognize the truth of her experience (and the experience of other Black and Lesbian women in the USA and across the world) and that readers recognize the ways that they may be complicit in that social structure. She stands in front of you (and audiences within the stories of this book) and demands to know where exactly the consideration of her and other women like her is. Where are the black women? Have you considered how people of color have been made to suffer for you to stand where you are standing? How have you benefitted from racism, ableism, sexism, and heterosexism and are your current actions helping prop up those systems and tear them down?
Lorde demands that readers consider these questions, demands that I consider these questions.
I will also say what should really go unsaid, that Lorde is a truly spectacular writer with the ability to manipulate readers' emotions with razor-like precision. Though this is a skill she must have fine-tuned in her poetry, it also shines clearly through in this collection.
Although I received this book as an advanced copy for the new edition coming out this September, I will be purchasing a hard copy of the new edition when it becomes available. I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars and I am excited to continue to explore Lorde's work.
Note: some of my reviews contain spoilers!
June 6, 2022
This was a beautiful and sorrowful account of Audre Lorde’s battles with cancer, her reflections on the world around her, her children, her relationships. It included interviews and diary entry style writing and was pretty short. The entries were really beautifully read on audiobook by Robin Miles. It always shocks, but not surprises, me that these things written several decades ago are still so relevant, and just how much of the things I see in her writing we still see today.
January 3, 2019
I had previously read bits and pieces of Audre Lorde, or seen her work referenced in other places, but this was my first time diving in. These essays were fascinating, beautifully written and inspiring. I found myself re-reading and marking down dozens of paragraphs throughout “Apartheid USA” and “A Burst of Light” (just see my Goodreads quotes page!) - such touching and formative writing for our time and for our movements, many of which continue to be led by powerful Black women.
January 2, 2026
"Dzienniki raka" były ważną lekturą, moim pierwszym spotkaniem z Audre Lorde – jej spojrzenie na takie tematy jak rasizm, feminizm, traktowanie kobiet, szczególnie chorych było w wielu aspektach inspirujące, choć niekoniecznie odkrywcze. Ten eseistyczny zbiór jest kontynuacją tych tematów, wzbogacony o seksualność, szczególnie homoseksualizm, a także poszerza perspektywę na problemy kobiet całego świata.
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....
December 21, 2019
I wish I could give 7 stars.
The best part of this collection are the journal excerpts detailing the years surrounding the reemergence of Lorde's cancer. She articulates with power and grace and love the difficulty of facing one's own death, her determination to bring all her selves to the battle with cancer, same as the battle against racism, homophobia, sexism. She's a titan, and one whose feet I'd like to remain sitting at as I learn how to go about living my own life. Read this.
The best part of this collection are the journal excerpts detailing the years surrounding the reemergence of Lorde's cancer. She articulates with power and grace and love the difficulty of facing one's own death, her determination to bring all her selves to the battle with cancer, same as the battle against racism, homophobia, sexism. She's a titan, and one whose feet I'd like to remain sitting at as I learn how to go about living my own life. Read this.
May 15, 2023
profound, urgent, and demanding. i need to read more of audre’s work.
September 22, 2024
shoutout to anwar for letting me read two of lorde’s books for my independent study.
December 18, 2023
with some hindsight, i’m rounding to a 3.
this collection is difficult to rate and review, because it is just some of lorde’s essays randomly tossed in before years worth of journal entries (the latter being the main draw and standout work). broadly, i found insight and enjoyment from this, despite absolutely not being the target audience - quoting this work brought me quite a good paragraph in an essay for uni, so i’ll always appreciate the power of lorde’s words there.
this collection is difficult to rate and review, because it is just some of lorde’s essays randomly tossed in before years worth of journal entries (the latter being the main draw and standout work). broadly, i found insight and enjoyment from this, despite absolutely not being the target audience - quoting this work brought me quite a good paragraph in an essay for uni, so i’ll always appreciate the power of lorde’s words there.
June 17, 2023
"The big black boot of freedom
Is smashing down your doorstep."
Lordes Kampf gegen Rassismus, Heterosexismus, Misogynie und - ein Hauptthema des Buchs - die eigene Krebserkrankung sind radikal und beeindruckend. Ich habe es vor allem als Fortsetzung der starken Cancer Diaries gelesen.
Ihre Kritik an der Schulmedizin ging mir etwas zu weit. Und vehement verurteilt sie schließlich in einem Interview BDSM als psychische Störung (!) und stellt dazu willkürliche Behauptungen auf.
Da stößt es etwas auf, wenn der Verlag ans Ende den Satz stellt, jede Seite dieser Ausgabe (2021) sei eine Inspiration.
Is smashing down your doorstep."
Lordes Kampf gegen Rassismus, Heterosexismus, Misogynie und - ein Hauptthema des Buchs - die eigene Krebserkrankung sind radikal und beeindruckend. Ich habe es vor allem als Fortsetzung der starken Cancer Diaries gelesen.
Ihre Kritik an der Schulmedizin ging mir etwas zu weit. Und vehement verurteilt sie schließlich in einem Interview BDSM als psychische Störung (!) und stellt dazu willkürliche Behauptungen auf.
Da stößt es etwas auf, wenn der Verlag ans Ende den Satz stellt, jede Seite dieser Ausgabe (2021) sei eine Inspiration.
October 1, 2019
This book was such a surprise. A Burst of Light is written by a Black Lesbian feminist and it includes a collection of her essays about fighting for civil rights and quite a bit about her journey with cancer. Her short essays on continuing her work with civil rights while coping with her own mortality and the final consequences of her fight with liver cancer are truly remarkable. Her essays really are bursts of light.
This book is a clear proclamation of intersectional feminism in its finest form. Anyone who is interested in social justice and civil rights, as well as how it affects women from diverse backgrounds should read Lorde's book. She never stopped - not even with cancer looming over her head and her last moments on Earth.
Best Takeaway Quotes
“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes—everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“Battling racism and battling heterosexism and battling apartheid share the same urgency inside me as battling cancer. None of these struggles are ever easy, and even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded, because it is so easy not to battle at all, to just accept and call that acceptance inevitable.” ― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“I respect the time I spend each day treating my body, and I consider it part of my political work. It is possible to have some conscious input into our physical processes–not expecting the impossible, but allowing for the unexpected–a kind of training in self-love and physical resistance.” ― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“To acknowledge privilege is the first step in making it available for wider use. Each of us is blessed in some particular way, whether we recognize our blessings or not.”
― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“Living with cancer has forced me to consciously jettison the myth of omnipresence, of believing—or loosely asserting—that I can do anything, along with any dangerous illusion of immortality. Neither of these unscrutinized defenses is a solid base for either political activism or personal struggle. But in their place, another kind of power is growing, tempered and enduring, grounded within the realities of what I am in fact doing. Ann open-eyed assessment and appreciation of what I can and do accomplish, using who I am and who I most wish myself to be. To stretch as far as I can go and relish what is satisfying rather than what is sad. Building a strong and elegant pathway toward transition.”
― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
This book is a clear proclamation of intersectional feminism in its finest form. Anyone who is interested in social justice and civil rights, as well as how it affects women from diverse backgrounds should read Lorde's book. She never stopped - not even with cancer looming over her head and her last moments on Earth.
Best Takeaway Quotes
“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes—everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“Battling racism and battling heterosexism and battling apartheid share the same urgency inside me as battling cancer. None of these struggles are ever easy, and even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded, because it is so easy not to battle at all, to just accept and call that acceptance inevitable.” ― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“I respect the time I spend each day treating my body, and I consider it part of my political work. It is possible to have some conscious input into our physical processes–not expecting the impossible, but allowing for the unexpected–a kind of training in self-love and physical resistance.” ― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“To acknowledge privilege is the first step in making it available for wider use. Each of us is blessed in some particular way, whether we recognize our blessings or not.”
― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
“Living with cancer has forced me to consciously jettison the myth of omnipresence, of believing—or loosely asserting—that I can do anything, along with any dangerous illusion of immortality. Neither of these unscrutinized defenses is a solid base for either political activism or personal struggle. But in their place, another kind of power is growing, tempered and enduring, grounded within the realities of what I am in fact doing. Ann open-eyed assessment and appreciation of what I can and do accomplish, using who I am and who I most wish myself to be. To stretch as far as I can go and relish what is satisfying rather than what is sad. Building a strong and elegant pathway toward transition.”
― Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light
July 13, 2018
Read this for the ONTD 2018 challenge. The theme was to read a book published in 1934 or written by an author born in 1934.
Being interested in intersectional feminism, as soon as I saw that Audre Lorde was born in 1934, I wanted to read one of her essay collections. Unfortunately, I've purchased far too many books recently and I'm trying to be a little more financially responsible: this book was the only work by Audre Lorde available at my public library.
I don't think that this anthology is the best introduction to Lorde's work. There's some great content here, but as a person currently going through cancer treatment, I found the title essay (which makes up about half the book) to be a little disappointing. This has inspired me to read more of her work, however, and as soon as I'm able, I will be picking up at least one of her poetry anthologies and probably one or two of her other books, like Sister Outsider or The Cancer Journals.
Being interested in intersectional feminism, as soon as I saw that Audre Lorde was born in 1934, I wanted to read one of her essay collections. Unfortunately, I've purchased far too many books recently and I'm trying to be a little more financially responsible: this book was the only work by Audre Lorde available at my public library.
I don't think that this anthology is the best introduction to Lorde's work. There's some great content here, but as a person currently going through cancer treatment, I found the title essay (which makes up about half the book) to be a little disappointing. This has inspired me to read more of her work, however, and as soon as I'm able, I will be picking up at least one of her poetry anthologies and probably one or two of her other books, like Sister Outsider or The Cancer Journals.
Read
August 3, 20234 stars for everything but the trash interview that opens this collection, where Lorde says that BDSM (pretty broadly) upholds patriarchy and heterosexism and is basically just people (specifically lesbians, that is the context) acting out violent ideas about domination. It's hateful and awful and also so absurd and untrue, and was very jarring. 0 stars. I wish there'd been some kind of critical analysis or note about it in the recent reissue of this book.
The rest of it, especially the essay on lesbian parenting, and the long essay in journal entries about living with liver cancer, is fantastic.
Sometimes the greats get it wrong.
The rest of it, especially the essay on lesbian parenting, and the long essay in journal entries about living with liver cancer, is fantastic.
Sometimes the greats get it wrong.
August 10, 2019
”I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes—everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
4.5 stars
4.5 stars
March 29, 2024
On sadomasochism is a gem: opened my mind to how violence is perpetuated in the worldview of patriarchal intimacy. Audre is clairvoyant on issues of gender and doesn't mince words. Our society instills a need to worship dominance- and you can choose not to.
January 7, 2023
My five star ranking is based on the superb quality of Lorde’s concluding essay, “A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer.” These pages are suffused with Lorde’s tenderness, spirituality, and wisdom. I read about her doctor appointments and her approach to her illness and suddenly am stunned by a moment between Lorde and the moon. I wonder if I have ever read as beautiful an appreciation of life. Unforgettable.
May 18, 2024
Part of me wishes I read more Audre Lorde before reading this. It was inspiring hearing her talk about her battle with cancer and how she wants to use (keyword use) what remains of her life, but also it was so existential i feel more context would’ve made it better. Anyway here’s a quote i found especially relevant:
“My poems are filled with blood these days because the future is so bloody. When the blood of four-year-old children runs unremarked through the alleys of Soweto, how can I pretend that sweetness is anything more than armor and ammunition in an ongoing war?”
“My poems are filled with blood these days because the future is so bloody. When the blood of four-year-old children runs unremarked through the alleys of Soweto, how can I pretend that sweetness is anything more than armor and ammunition in an ongoing war?”
January 31, 2025
“Sometimes we are blessed with the being able to choose the time and arena and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle wherever we are standing…The real blessing is to be able to use whoever I am wherever I am, in concert with as many others as possible, or alone if needs be.”
November 10, 2023
“drastic life-changes laced together with the eternal ordinary”
the way audre lorde communicates is the goal to strive toward
i will always come back to lorde
🙏
the way audre lorde communicates is the goal to strive toward
i will always come back to lorde
🙏
January 19, 2026
“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do.”
This book is a treasure of hope—both personal and political. Worth the read.
This book is a treasure of hope—both personal and political. Worth the read.
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