“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.”

American writer, professor, philosopher, poet, civil rights activist, and intersectional feminist

Audre Lorde was an American writer, professor, philosopher, poet, civil rights activist, and intersectional feminist. She is remembered for a life devoted to challenging injustice and oppression, and for naming herself as a Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet. Her work and public voice were rooted in struggles for liberation, equality, and dignity. She argued against ranking forms of oppression, insisting that people committed to freedom and a livable future for children should not be divided by whose suffering counts most.