Talk:Audre Lorde

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Discussion

I see a potential typo, but it may not be. Checking prior to editing. In the Work:Poetry section, the paragraph discussing Coal includes this bit: "The volume includes poems from both The First Cities and Cables to Rage, and it unties many of the themes Lorde would become known for throughout her career". Wondering if that unties is meant to be unites. It potentially works both ways, so I'm hesitant to change. Quine (talk) 18:27, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Did Ms. Lorde really serve as State Poet of New York even after her death? She may have been appointed to a term that was to be from 1991 to 1993, but surely vacated the office upon her death. Suggesting otherwise is like saying "John Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. He was President of the United States from 1961 to 1965." Rlquall 13:15, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

"As a poet, she is best known for emotional expression and being a woman" Can we find a more exclusive description for her? Mdmcginn (talk) 14:43, 19 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Several reference sources, followed by Wikipedia, identify the former husband of the late Audre Lorde as a New York lawyer named Edward Ashley Rollins. I believe the correct name is Edwin Ashley Rollins. See the 2004 biography Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux. (It may also be relevant for editors of this Wikipedia entry that both marriage partners were gay and that their marriage did not represent any experimental shift in orientation for either of them, according to the De Veaux biography.) For the sake of a source accessible online to confirm that Edwin is the correct name, pasted in at bottom is a New York Times item from 1998 on the wedding of a child of Lorde and Rollins. Better still, you could call him up and ask him. He's in the Brooklyn phone directory. ________________________________

from the New York Times, 6 September 1998:

''WEDDINGS; Judy Lew, Jonathan Rollins

Judy Lew, the daughter of Jung Ja and Joseph Eun Sang Lew of Los Angeles, was married yesterday to Jonathan Frederick Ashley Rollins, the son of Edwin Ashley Rollins of Brooklyn and the late Audre Geraldin Lorde. The Rev. Gail Burger, a Presbyterian minister, performed the ceremony at the Chapel of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The couple, both Vassar graduates, work in Los Angeles. Mrs. Rollins, 32, is an associate specializing in child dependency at Auxiliary Legal Services, a law firm. Mr. Rollins, 34, is an assistant vice president in commercial banking at the Bank of New York. The bride graduated from Hastings College of the Law. Her parents own Garland Distributing, an importer and distributor of costumes and accessories in Los Angeles. The bridegroom's mother was the Poet Laureate of New York State in 1990 and 1991. His father is a criminal defense lawyer in Brooklyn.''— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mstarli (talk • contribs) 01:28, 11 June 2006

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 10:55, 27 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

External link: Is there an issue?

I have restored again an external link to an online 1991 article from Kenyon Review. While it concerns the work Zami, it also concerns Lorde's life & issues of sexuality, authorship, early life, etc. I do not fathom the rationale for repeated deletions of it. It is legitimate content; space can't be the issue. What's the problem? The author B. DiBernard is a respected feminist lesbian scholar. I'm just trying to help people find relevant material.Proyster 23:21, 29 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is relevant material, just not relevant to this particular article, since it's not about Audre Lorde per se, rather it's a feminist analysis of one particular work by Audre Lorde, Zami. As such it is more appropriate as an external link for that article, where you have already added it. It does discuss details about Audre Lorde, in so much as Zami is partially autobiographical, but the focus of the analysis is more centrally on feminism, identity, and Zami than it is about Audre Lorde. Since the analysis isn't directly autobiographical, isn't mentioned (or relevant enough to be mentioned) in the Wikipedia article about Audre Lorde, and is already listed in another more appropriate location on Wikipedia, I am removing it. I also want to mention the fact that it was added in multiple articles and added in all capital letters made me suspect originally that it might be WP:SPAM and thereby against Wikipedia's content guidelines. Queerudite 06:19, 31 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This seems extremely hair-splitting to me. Only 1 work of Lorde's has its own entry, so a user is less likely to find the material there. The objectionable all-capitals have been removed. This is a work of scholarship, not spam. Who made the rule that only 1 link is allowable? To say that the analysis isn't relevant enough to be mentioned and so shouldn't be linked seems circular logic.Proyster 02:23, 2 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

More pages on her other works will be created in the coming year. Tidbits from works of scholarship can be mentioned in a "Literary significance and criticism" section, if they contain useful information.Zigzig20s 12:40, 2 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is of course no rule about only having one link on Wikipedia. The only prohibition on external links is that they must be relevant. In general, it is not circular logic to expect external links to link to material that would be relevant enough to be discussed in the Wikipedia article. I agree with Zigzig20s that if there were a "Literary significance and criticism" section to this article, the provided link would be significantly more relevant to this article. Although I still don't feel the link is relevant to the article as written, I don't feel strongly enough to remove it again, so I wrote section headers for the links to give them context. Best, Queerudite 14:33, 8 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The promised "More pages on her other works will be created in the coming year" has not come to pass, nor is this page weighted down with accessible scholarly content. But still the first academic appreciation of Lorde is again ghetto-ized away to a less popular page. Is this helping Lorde somehow? Or helping the seeker of information? Do what you like, but this exclusionary policy seems ironic to me.Proyster (talk) 07:03, 6 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Main Lorde page

Discussion regarding what the main Lorde page should be is occurring at Talk:Lorde#Disambiguation. Should it be the New Zealand Singer/song writer or the Disambiguation page? feel free to add to discussion. ShakyIsles (talk) 03:27, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Worshipful

This article sounds worshipful, way too many things unsourced, general disaster. Mercster (talk) 13:04, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree, particularly with the last sentence in section 5.2, "With such a strong ideology and open-mindedness, Lorde's impact on lesbian society is also significant.", seems to introduce an erroneous subjective view point. Abc2VE (talk) 19:41, 13 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is this neutral and backed up by reliable sources?

"A major critique of womanism is its failure to explicitly address homosexuality within the female community. Very little womanist literature relates to lesbian or bisexual issues, and many scholars consider the reluctance to accept homosexuality accountable to the gender simplistic model of womanism." A statement like this might be true, but without a reliable source to defend this factually, it sounds like something you would include in a thesis paper, not a research paper or a factual biography.

The links do work but some of them lead you to websites. Dobanla (talk) 20:07, 24 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Gaps in bio

Between her High School graduation 1951 and college 1954, what was she doing? What program did she enroll in graduate from at Hunter College? --Webmgr (talk) 10:07, 16 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Lede - identity as a "Black lesbian and feminist"

Hi, following the last two edits, it would be used to add that Lorde identified as a "Black lesbian and feminist" to the first paragraph of the lede. @DisillusionedBitterAndKnackered: Thoughts? MassiveEartha (talk) 14:10, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds fine, MassiveEartha, and thanks for consulting. My objection to the edit I reverted was its chucking in her sexuality alongside the other stuff about her like it was just some label - like being an author or a pilot, an item in a list. I am pretty sure we don't do this: Fred Bloggs is a journalist, gay, pilot and painter. It's messy, to say the least. (Or "to say the list"? Hmmmm.) And while I can't see inside the IP's head, I at least would pause over that use of "queer" ... might be a routine adjective for them to use, yes, but might also be something less positive. If you can find a sensible way of saying what you've proposed then I'd be the first to salute it. Thanks again and best wishes DBaK (talk) 17:38, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I like that, too. The lead doesn't really conform with WP:LEAD right now, with over half of it just being one large quotation. It needs to do a better job of summarizing her life. What if we mention her identity as a black lesbian and feminist in a way that emphasizes her contributions to feminist theory? I'm not quite sure how to word it, but I'm thinking something like Drawing on her experiences as a black lesbian and feminist, Lorde criticized second-wave feminism for its racism, stressing the inter-connectedness of oppressions and ultimately paving the way for what would later be called intersectional feminism.? It's a bit wordy, and I think we can come up with something better, but I think it's a start for improving the lead. -- irn (talk) 20:00, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Intro second paragraph issues

The second paragraph contains unnecessary information that is biased, subjective or pertains to a topic of current dispute or taxonomic morphology (debate between intersectional and non-intersectional feminism) and should be added to the main body of the text.

Approaches of humanistic literary criticism should not form part of biographical summary except to highlight. "Lorde was a proponent of intersectional approaches in feminist literary criticism and activism" would be adequate.

The tone is currently too combative and places a moral judgment on a topic that is not rooted in objective reality, but non-objective philosophical discourse. Canlawtictoc (talk) 13:50, 19 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Lede Phrasing

I wonder if the phrase "she is known for her technical mastery" is an editorial, or could have a more robust sourece. Benebeneb (talk) 20:09, 2 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Must agree there, Bene. The cite does not really support the claim. Valetude (talk) 19:37, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Berlin years - over expansive?

I wonder if the section about Lorde's time in Berlin isn't too expansive in comparison to how much information there is in this section about the rest of her life. I suspect that the reason for the emphasize on Berlin is the result of the documentary that was made about it, and hence all the information and details in this entry about where the film was shown, what prizes it won, et cetera - information that isn't really directly connected to Lorde's biography and should maybe be consolidated. By creating this imbalance, the entry gives the wrong impression about Lorde's life. It could have a place in the German wikipedia perhaps. Suscipedepre (talk) 07:10, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Good Article Nomination?

WikiProject Women in Green is holding a month-long Good Article Editathon event in October 2021. The event is focused on the topic of women's rights. Participants are invited to work on nominating and/or reviewing women's rights-related GA submissions during the event period, with resources and one-on-one support provided by experienced Women in Green GA reviewers. I have not worked on the Audre Lorde article but, having reviewed quite a few GA nominations, I can see it is not far off from meeting the criteria of Good Article. I'll be happy to help out if any (or a collection) of the regular editors here would like to nominate it. Edwininlondon (talk) 17:13, 24 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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