May 24, 2023
Audre Lorde is the 2020 inductee to the American Poets Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
In Poets Corner tradition, a memorial stone carved with Lorde’s dates and a quotation from her poem “A Litany for Survival” has been laid in the Cathedral, placing Lorde amongst her fellow American literary giants. The Cathedral celebrated the life and works of Audre Lorde, poet, essayist, feminist, educator and activist, with a virtual induction ceremony on Thursday, February 18. Readers and participants include members of Lorde’s family and fellow poets including Dante Micheaux, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Martha Collins, Cathedral Poet in Residence Marie Howe, United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, and more.
Lorde’s writings are both deeply personal and committed to a liberatory political vision. Her poems and essays openly discuss her lesbianism, Blackness, motherhood, cancer diagnoses, and many other facets of her life, exploding notions of both white male dominance and cultural homogeny within progressive social movements. These many layers of selfhood, expressed through lyrical writings both prose and poetic, celebrate difference, inviting readers to draw upon their own personal journeys to add to the shared fight for justice and community.
For more literature from the Cathedral, visit us online at stjohndivine.org/art/poets!
