The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House

by Audre Lorde

From the self-described 'black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet', these soaring, urgent essays on the power of women, poetry and anger are filled with darkness and light.

Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Essays, Politics, Race, Classics, Poetry

51 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2018

About the author

Audre 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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Reviews

[Olivia-Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell from the title this is going to be a good one. It’s made up of different essays though, so let me talk about them individually.

Poetry is Not A Luxury – I’d read this one before. I would clarify that it isn’t the beginning and end all of all poetry, but it does describe one of the ways in which I perceive poetry. I could totally relate and agree with her! It really moved me to read about why poetry isn’t a luxury for some people, and what it could mean to them.

Use of Erotic – A well written embrace of female beauty and self. I’ve never read such a clear cut distinction between the definitions of erotic and pornographic before.

The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House – This one was about why we need difference feminism and not equality feminism. It also discussed how there can’t be racism and homophobia in feminism as it then doesn’t include all women. It really begged the question of why some people believe in fighting certain types of oppression and then oppress others. I loved when she talked about how the tools used to given to us by those oppressing help us overcome the issue. It is only serving their superiority complex. We must use our own tools to overcome oppression. And I agreed so much.

Uses of Anger – Can I get an amen to this whole essay? It was about women responding to racism, and how racism is not an issue black people need to solve. It’s not their problem. It’s a problem to those who enact and enable it to happen. It really was about how anger can be channelled and used for good as well, which made me think of Children of Blood and Bone.

This review was originally posted on Olivia's Catastrophe: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2019/0...

[Emma Angeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Revolution is not a one-time event”

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

''Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses...''

It's a short collection of 5 excellent essays.

[leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

though only a tiny essay collection, this one packs a fierce and impactful punch, largely focusing on feminism, racism, and sexuality. lorde places an emphasis on intersectionalism, particularly through sharing insights from her life as a woman of colour, a lesbian, and a mother - and how all of these have an impact on her feminism. one of the biggest takeaways is lorde’s argument that progress cannot happen unless we recognise, understand, and support each other’s differences in experience, along with the reminder that “revolution is not a one-time event”.

other standout quotes:

“i am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. and i am not free as long as one person or colour remains chained. nor is any one of you.”

“within each of us there is some piece of humanness that knows we are not being served by the machine which orchestrates crisis after crisis and is grinding all our futures into dust.”

everyone should read this.

[nikki | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.

brief but concise, succinct reflections on poetry, eroticism, feminism, and pro-black racial justice.

it is quite sobering to read something from ~50 years ago and much of it is quite applicable / in the same place, but it inspires reflection and action.

would rec for fellow moots for sure.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of colour remains chained. Nor is any one of you.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t recommend Audre Lorde strongly enough😌
So glad she has been included in this collection because she should be much more well-known than she is

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need to read everything audre lorde has ever written, this was brilliant

[Aimun]

I mean. What is there to say. Should be compulsary reading for everyone. Yeah.

(I will not rate this. Because that feels like a toddler with her first crayons attempting to compliment Van Gogh.)

[Smriti · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in my sister's oppression and she calls me on it, to answer her anger with my own only blankets the substance of our exchange with reaction. It wastes energy."

"What woman here is so enamoured of her own oppression that she cannot see her heel print upon another woman's face?"

I haven't read enough intersectional texts (anyone who wants to recommend any, do comment), and this short series of essays only brought into focus the social media culture of debating our differences without seeing them through as possibilities of change. What is the point of debating our personal oppressions and priveleges and calling others out when we cannot use these for change? Can't wait to read more of Lorde.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of powerful speeches Lorde made in the late 70s and early 80s on racism, poetry and feminism, lasering in on issues surrounding Black women. Lorde was a brilliant pioneer whose insights inspired a generation of writers and activists - each piece is relevant today.

Penguin Modern Classics
#1 - Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
#2 - Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber by Allen Ginsberg
#3 - The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier
#4 - The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker
#5 - Three Japanese Short Stories (3 authors)
#6 - The Veiled Woman by Anais Nin
#7 - Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell
#8 - Food by Gertrude Stein
#9 - The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem
#10 - The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh
#11 - The Legend of the Sleepers by Danilo Kis
#12 - The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison
#13 - Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys
#14 - Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka
#15 - Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady by Clarice Lispector
#16 - An Advertisement for Toothpaste by Ryszard Kapuscinski
#17 - Create Dangerously by Albert Camus
#18 - The Vigilante by John Steinbeck
#19 - I Have More Souls than One by Fernando Pessoa
#20 - The Missing Girl by Shirlely Jackson
#21 - Gazdanov & Others
#22 - The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino
#23 - The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House by Audre Lord

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of colour remains chained. Nor is any one of you”

[Gohnar23 · Rating 5 out of 5]

#️⃣5️⃣3️⃣6️⃣ Read & Reviewed in 2025 🍩🧁
Date : 🗓️ Thursday, October 2, 2025 🎁💐🍝
Word Count📃: 17k Words 🎉🍬✨

— !! 𖦹「 ✦ 🍪 Happy Birthday🎂 ✦ 」✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

My 11th read in "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!! :DDDD 👏🍭🍨" October.

5️⃣🌟, stared at the ceiling too long cuz im supposed to sleep right now but i spent it visibly shocked and gagged with the events that just happened part 1.
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➕➖0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟✖️➗

This is probably one of the shortest but most impacful essay collections that i've read in my entire life. It talks about feminism and homosexual rights and also solving racism as the author is a lesbian black woman who monster speak about these issues in society. It really opened my eyes because the very first essay which is Poetry is not a Luxury. It really talks about the emphasis of prose to women in literature and how people can be connected with these forms of art and literature in a high degree. The second essay is also a highlight since it talks about Eroticism, (u know me, i will forever hate smut and forever will be) but it does have a point on people's erotic and sexual needs. I mean at least i learned that it's important to other people but when it comes to me its just.....a very u uhhhh nono nooo 😤. Aaaand last highlight is the fourth essay which wow. Anger really do be a great call to action. When people show this intense emotion and people generally have the same side and has the same reaction as that, anger WILL have some societal change that shows how the power of united anger can be.

[Emma Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Audre Lorde, and this small collection reminds me why. Although this initially took me a little bit longer to get into, since I have not read theory in well over a year, parts of this came back to me; whilst dense at times and loaded with some heavy, theoretical ideas, Lorde's writing drew me in and I found myself nodding along to so much in this. So much of what Lorde writes remains true to this day and her judgement and criticisms are as sharp and insightful now as they were when they were first enunciated. I particularly love her insight into what it is like as a WOC, a lesbian and a mother and the way that she touches upon and begins to articulate the idea of intersectionality. I could never hope to match Lorde's eloquence when it comes to feminism but I love falling into Lorde's work and finding the words to justify its existence and why it is necessary.

[Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?] · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.
They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.
And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the masters house as their only source of support.

Short, but extremely interesting text from a black, lesbian feminist.

[luciana · Rating 5 out of 5]

storygraph |instagram |

One of the most thought-provoking book i've ever read.

RTC.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a similar way to James Baldwin's Notes from a Native Son which I read last year, I started reading the first essay in this collection with a sinking feeling that I just didn't have the mental chops to take it all in - I have subsequently been told by friends who have also read Audre Lorde that having to read sentences three times is normal ;) As with the Baldwin though, either the essays became easier to read or I just got accustomed to the writing style and I found myself more and more engaged as they went on to the point that it felt like there was more highlighted text than that left bare!

As such there is way too much in these five short essays to go into detail but they are powerfully and passionately written and utterly relevant to today. Audre Lorde was very aware that feminism was leaving black women behind and that they didn't need guilt or anger against them because of this but listening and for their voices to be heard. She was aware that division is a tool of further oppression because if we are so busy hating one another we can't look to the top where the real problems are. She looks at someone like Malcolm X, how his vision changed and how it could be capitalized on in the 1980's, how putting passion, 'the erotic' and creativity back into life after having it suppressed would empower black people and how as a black, lesbian female her fight to be heard had to be fought on three fronts. There is so much more in this little book but needless to say you should go out and read it for yourself.

[Sherald · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's astonishing the impact a tiny volume of 50 pages can have. Every intellectual, aspiring or abiding, who ever had the idea of going into academia to effect just and lasting change should read this. On this question, Audre Lorde makes her stance abundantly clear:

"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those who still define the master's house as their only source of support."

As an intellectual, I find this endlessly profound. Lorde is not telling me to stop being an intellectual. Rather, her essays are a poignant reminder that academia is and always will be a bourgeois institution. No amount of decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion can change this material and historical fact. To effect genuine change, intellectuals must look and go beyond the academy—to the streets, to the toiling masses. There is no other way.

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crash course on the new frontier for intersectional feminism, how do we think about LGBT identities with respect to race and sex?

I find it hard to engage with the poetry, and am not sure how angry integrationism works (feels like MLK and Malcolm X at the same time), but this was an interesting read and there are some powerful words here.

[Marie S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Classic case of "It's not you, it's me". I couldn't get into the essays, I felt that there were too many ideas and no clear point so I was lost most of the time.

[rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantastic essay collection! i didn't know about lorde's work, but i'll look for more stuff from her for sure.

[Kemunto Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was perfect! 💗 Highlighted almost every line, ha! Audre Lorde. Wow.

“For within living structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, feelings were expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets. And there are no new pains. We have felt them all already. We have hidden that fact in the same place where we have hidden our power. They surface in our dreams, and it is our dreams that point the way to freedom”

Excerpt From
The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House
Audre Lorde

[Michael Bagnoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot here, but the following are two takeaways in the top of my mind:

1. Poetry is language on steroids. “Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought…We can train ourselves to respect our feelings and to transpose them into a language so they can be shared. And where that language does not yet exist, it is our poetry which helps to fashion it. Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives.”

2. Emancipate Eros from the bedroom. “Another important way in which the erotic connection functions is the open and fearless underlining of my capacity for joy. In the way my body stretches to music and opens into response, heartening to its deepest rhythms, so every level upon which I sense also opens to the erotically satisfying experience, whether is it dancing, building a bookcase, writing a poem, examining an idea.”

Thus the erotic life, in the Ancient Greek sense rather than in the perverse modern sense, is The Good Life.

[som ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱₊˚⊹ · Rating 5 out of 5]

القراءة الثانية
فتحته الحقيقة لأني كنت أحس بإحباط شديد يوم الثلاثاء الماضية … عطاني الدفعة إللي كنت أحتايها وأتوقعها منه :] أحب أودري وأحب وأقدر كلماتها والقوة اللي يحتوينها جداً جداً … أتمنى أقدر أكون بالشجاعة والقوة المطلوبة لعيش حياتي بشكل كلي وكامل فيوم من الأيام ! !

القراءة الأولى
أحاول أعرف إيش أكتب عنه كمراجعة غير إني أترجى كل بنت/afab انه يقروه......... بيغير تفكيركم ! أفكارها ثورية وقوية ومقنعة جداً !!! ولغتها جميلة جداً...... سعيد إنه هالمقالات الخمس كانوا تجربتي الأولى معها، ومية بالمية مارح تكون الأخيرة !

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses; for instance, it is learning to address each other's difference with respect."

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of five essays by Audre Lorde. All of the essays were powerful, but my favorite was "Learning from the 1960s." It stresses the need for people to work together to create social change, which is a message that a lot of people need to hear these days.

[Milena.Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 starts for writing
5 starts for content
and a freaking billion starts for blowing my mind!!

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

'To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up.'

[Rutvik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not much of a non-fitction reader but this might convert me.

Each word from Audre Lorde's mind is brimming with purpose and has so much power! these essays are so so urgent and so intentional. They convey everything with grit and conviction and don't why away from making you think and look at the world in a new light.

A new favorite author whose work I need to read in entirety in this life.

[Jojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

„I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of colour remains chained. Nor is any one of you.“

[Carmijn Gerritsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Lorde’s writing is exquisite and covers a lot of ground. In this small book, several texts are gathered together in order to present discussions of race, womanhood, power relations and change. This is a subsequently a great way to introduce readers to her stance.