African-American History

Audie Geraldine Lorde was born in Harlem NY on February 18, 1934 and died on November 17, 1992. An American poet, essayist, librarian and staunch feminist, Lorde was always proud to be Black, lesbian and feminist. Lorde often said she found her way to freedom via her writing She wrote of the pain of the black woman, often protesting homophobia. 

Lorde wrote her first poem in the eighth grade and her first collection of poems, The First Cities, was published in 1968. As a librarian, Lorde worked at the Mt. Vernon Public Library from 1960-62, at the City College of the City University of New York from 1968-69, then at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice from 1970-80, and at Hunter College in New York, from 1980 onward. In 1968, Lorde received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. In 1975, she was named Woman of the Year by the Staten Island Community College. 

Lorde also received the Creative Arts Public Service Book Award for Poetry in 1974. In 1980, Lorde chronicled her experience with cancer in her first work of non-fiction, a biographical work, The Cancer Journals.