On this day, February 18, in 1934

Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet, Audre Lorde was born in New York City. Throughout the 1960's Lorde was politically active in the civil rights, the antiwar and the feminist movements. Also during this time Lorde completed many volumes of poetry, in which she wrote passionately against both racial and sexual oppression, and while her poetry was often very political, she also addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth, and intimacy. Throughout her career as a poet and activist, Lorde was a powerful contributor to the evolution of feminist discourse. She often critiqued hegemonic feminist theory in its exclusion of race and sexuality.