“One beauty (primacy, urgency) in Lorde’s archives is her deep identification with her role as a teacher. Her classes in Berlin were recorded (and archived) for a documentary, but she also states in those recordings that she intends them to live past her, and at times she will address future listeners: in those moments, I perk up, headphones on, ready to catch the tether she’s throwing out into her blank and unknown future. I catch it, marvel. She’s staked her role as a teacher not simply for the people in front of her but for the people who will come after her. Perhaps this is ego. If so, we need more ego. I want my teachers to claim me this way: with hunger, with surety.”
Read more from Christina Olivares, in conversation with Mahogany L. Browne, in the series “What Audre Lorde Taught Us” at Lambda Literary.