Madeline’s Reviews > Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde > Status Update

“When we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

Diaspora specifically means “the scattering of seeds/spores on the wind”

“The guardians of the border, the gatekeepers. The gender outlaws. The black people most vulnerable to the violence of a deadly and homophobic gender binary.”

“Some words are open, like a diamond on glass windows, singing out within the crash of passing sun.” Audre Lorde, coal

“Sometimes, existence is empowerment.”

Audre and June Jordan’s friendship ended bc June felt unsupported by Audre during the public feuds with Rich over Palestine. Adrienne Rich and Jordan later reconciled and wrote letters “agreeing to fight about things they believe in rather than never talk again” and Rich acted as an intermediary between Lorde and Jordan, trying to reconnect them + sharing details about their lives. They never reconnected

“Typewriters travelled wherever colonialism travelled. In countries colonized by Britain, like Kenya and India, typewriters arrived with colonial offices. Eventually, those typewriters, replaced by updated models, made their way into communities under colonial control.”

We don’t have complete thoughts from Audre about Zionism. Only a cryptic journal entry where she said: “where does that leave A [Rich] plus me? Where does that leave June plus me?”
Her 1989 commencement address at Oberlin college asked grads to be critical of US support of Palestinian occupation.

June Jordan was blacklisted by the NY times for her anti-Zionism

“To Adrienne, I make this public reply: your evident definition of feminism leaves you indistinguishable from the white men threatening the planet with extinction. I refuse to assume responsibility for your actions and your inertia. I do not accept you as my people.” - June Jordan to Adrienne Rich, following Adrienne’s insistence on being a Zionist.

Adrienne Rich was Jewish, part of feminist Jewish groups that worked on sexism in the Jewish population + antisemitism in the greater American populace, and signed off on a letter stating that “all critique or rejection of Zionism is anti-semitism.” Yikes