her mind is incredible. ( )

Best for:
People interested in some seriously good essays from a poet and activist.

In a nutshell:
This mini book contains five of Lorde’s essays / speeches on revolution and liberation.

Worth quoting:
“To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society.”

“Only within a patriarchal structure is maternity the only social power open to women.”

“Can anyone here still afford to believe that the pursuit of liberation can be the sole and particular province of any one particular race, or sex, or age, or religion, or sexuality, or class?

Why I chose it:
This was included in one of my subscription boxes.

Review:
I had heard Lorde’s phrase that is the title of this collection, but I had no idea of the context of it - she had been invited to speak at conference on feminism, was told many different concepts and facets of womanhood and feminist would be represented, and instead was faced with a big group of white feminists instead. She was no pleased, and made it known. That talk unfortunately could have taken place a week ago - I think we see it with white liberals a lot. We see it in all industries when they hold conferences - tech only invites men (usually white), except to the one panel on women in tech, where they invite a woman, but she’s also usually white. The problem here, as Lorde elucidates, is that, for example, the patriarchy is part of the problem, and we can’t frame the solution to the problems of patriarchy using the same systems and criteria that the patriarchy set up. We need to acknowledge and inhabit our differences.

There are five other essays in here as well, and the one that I found affected me the most was Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism. Lorde looks at why anger is necessary, and why guilt is often ‘just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication.’ It made me think of the utter uselessness and dangerousness of white liberals who are so focused on their own white guilt that they can’t move forward in their own anti-racism work. Lorde makes the argument that anger is necessary and good and productive, and translates into action. In a world where the concept of the ‘Angry Black Woman’ is used as a way to discount the opinions shared by Black women whether angry or not, I found this to be an extremely important discussion.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it ( )

I really enjoyed Audre Lorde's writing and I think she made some points I could really relate to, but don't think I've ever read in other feminist nonfiction. I'm really looking forward to pick up more by her. ( )

NB. I was given a free ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Sounds like an episode of Star Trek: Discovery, is actually a short collection of essays on race, feeling and feminism by Audre Lorde – and number 23 in the new Penguin Moderns series.

Lorde does not speak directly to my lived experience, but there is a universality to what she describes (and describes beautifully in clear but lyrical prose). The whitest, cisest, able-bodiest straight man will recognise something in her statement "We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves".

That's not to say that I, a white middle-class straight bloke, read the work of a black feminist lesbian and took from it: "Gosh her struggle is just like mine!" But understanding my own recognition as a white middle-class straight bloke as an echo of what the black feminist lesbian describes is important to achieving some form of wider societal reconciliation.

It hurts the ex-Etonian (that's not me) when he's ribbed for being posh – and fair enough, no one likes being mocked. But it's nothing like the black woman being beaten by the police. However, for a moment, he got the vaguest, most distant sense of what it might be like to be excluded and derided by those around you for some part of his identity.

Identity politics is divisive, built on the lines it ostensibly wants to wipe away. Our experiences of the world are different, but they are also recognisable to one another on some level if we are clear-sighted. And recognition of each other is the key to some better harmony.

Now let's all go dance naked. ( )