Lorde

Yesterday was Audre Lorde’s birthday. My friend Hannah reminded me. She knows things about books and authors and shares those things where they need to be remembered.

Yesterday I ordered a perpetual calendar from an artist in Barcelona to use to help me remember when to wish people a happy birthday, and to help me remember in years ahead when it’s time to celebrate Audre Lorde’s influence and legacy.

On February 18th, for instance, some year in the future I might look at the calendar on my way to the french press in the morning and I’d see that it’s Audre Lorde’s birthday and I’d remember, in this world so often distorted by inequity and abuses of power, that “in order to win the aggressor must conquer, but resisters need only survive”. And I would feel compelled to resist even the tiniest impulse for conquest. And I would feel heartened to be on the side of the resisters. In that moment I would know that among friends and strangers alike, most of the beings I encounter want to push back against malevolent forces in our world. I would know that we have work to do. And I would know that I am in good company this day, and every day.