Audre Lorde, poet, gay, lesbian, LGBT, history

b. February 18, 1934
d. November 17, 1992

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

A self-proclaimed "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Audre Lorde dedicated her life to combating social injustice. She helped found Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the world's first publishing company run by women of color.

Lorde was the third daughter of immigrant parents from Grenada. She began writing poetry at age twelve and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine at age fifteen. Lorde was strongly influenced by her West Indian heritage, which she explored in her autobiography, "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name."

In 1954, Lorde attended the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), where she solidified her identity as both a poet and a lesbian. She entered the Greenwich Village gay scene after her return to New York in 1955.

She continued her studies, receiving a bachelor's degree from Hunter College in 1959 and a master's degree in Library Science from Columbia University in 1961.

Lorde worked as a librarian while continuing to write and publish poetry. In 1962, she married Edwin Rollins. The couple had two children before their marriage dissolved. Much of Lorde's poetry written during these years explores themes of motherhood and love's impermanence.

In 1968, Lorde received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and published her first volume of poetry, "The First Cities" as a poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. She began a romantic relationship with Frances Clayton that same year that would last until Lorde's death in 1992.

Rich with introspection, Lorde's work contains extensive sociopolitical commentary. As a lesbian woman of color Lorde asserted, "I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain."

Lorde explored her long battle with cancer in her last work, "The Cancer Journals" (1980). In an African naming ceremony shortly before her death, Lorde took the name Gamba Adisa: "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known."

Bibliography

“Audre Lorde.” Lambda. June 29, 2007

De Veaux, Alexis. Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde. W. W. Norton, 2006

Green, Becky and Aletnin Nguyen. “Audre Lorde (1934-1992).” VG: Voices from the Gaps, Women Artists and Writers of Color. December 6, 1996. June 29, 2007

Sullivan, James. “Audre Lorde (1934-1992).” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Modern American Poetry. June 29, 2007

Selected Works

A Burst of Light: Essays (1988)

Coal (1976)

From a Land Where Other People Live (1973)

Need: A Chorale for Black Women Voices (1990)

New York Head Shop and Museum (1974)

Our Dead Behind Us (1986)

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

The Black Unicorn (1978)

The Cancer Journals (1980)

The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power (1978)

Undersong: Chosen Poems, Old and New (1982)

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982

Related articles

• Ten Lesbian & Bisexual Poets To Fall in Love With [Womanly Wordsmiths] (Jezebel)
• Fool That I Am: National Coming Out Week (The New Gay)
• We were there: Stonewall Honors 2009 (Time Out NY)
• Womanist Roots: Our History with Homosexuality (Clutch Mag Online)
• Emanuel Xavier, Poet (Its a Queer World)

Alvin Ailey Jr.

b. January 5, 1931
d. December 1, 1989

“I am trying to show the world that we are all human beings and that color is not important. What is important is the quality of our work.”

A prolific choreographer, Alvin Ailey created 79 original works for his company. His signature piece, “Revelations” (1960), is touted as the most-watched work of modern dance.

Alvin Ailey Jr. was an internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer. He founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a dance company hailed as an ambassador of American culture. Ailey formed a multiracial company and revolutionized dance, incorporating elements of ballet and jazz, along with modern and African dance, into his work.

Ailey grew up in Rogers, Texas, the son of a young, struggling single mother. His father abandoned the family when Ailey was six months old. In 1941, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Ailey met Lester Horton, who ran the first multiracial dance school.

Horton took Ailey under his wing, teaching him a variety of dance styles and techniques. In 1953, Ailey joined Horton’s company. Later that year, he was named artistic director.

In 1954, Ailey made his Broadway debut dancing in “House of Flowers.” He also performed in “Sing, Man, Sing” with Harry Belafonte and in “Jamaica” with Lena Horne.

In 1957, Ailey established the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The company’s premiere performance, “Blues Suite”—a riveting work reflecting the African- American emotional experience—defined Ailey’s theatrical and eclectic style.

A prolific choreographer, Ailey created 79 original works for his company. “Revelations” (1960), recognized as his signature piece, is touted as the most-watched work of modern dance. “Cry” (1971), one of Ailey’s most successful works, was dedicated to his mother and African-American women.

In 1979, Ailey received the Springarn Medal for outstanding achievement from the NAACP. In 1988, he was recognized with a Kennedy Center Honors Award.

Ailey died at age 58 from complications of AIDS. In his memory, a section of West 61st Street in New York was named “Alvin Ailey Way.”

May 12: Florence Nightingale, Nurse

Health Care Advocate
b. May 12, 1820
d. August 13, 1910

I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.

Florence Nightingale exploded into public consciousness during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Serving as the superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in London from 1853-1854, she learned of the horrible conditions soldiers faced during Britain's Crimean War with Russia. Using her friendship with politician Sidney Herbert to gain official approval, Nightingale trained 38 nurses and traveled to Turkey, arriving at a hospital in Scutari (modern day Istanbul) in November of 1854.

The Scutari hospitals had the highest mortality levels in the region. Overcrowding, defective sewage systems and poor ventilation contributed to soldiers' illnesses and death. Yet while a sanitary commission sent by the British government took over six months to arrive, Nightingale and her nursing crew cleaned up the hospital and delivered an unprecedented level of nursing care. By the time she left, Nightingale had earned the military's admiration. She returned to Britain as a hero in 1857.

Confined to bed by fever upon her return, Nightingale refused to let her illness diminish her work. She helped establish the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army and wrote its first report, a document that facilitated an overhaul of army medical care and record-keeping. "Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not," her instructional guide published in 1860, continues to influence nursing schools across the globe. Nightingale founded The Nightingale Fund and the Nightingale Training School. Nurses she mentored and trained spread throughout England and Australia and conducted pioneering work in America and Japan.

A brilliant mathematician and writer, Nightingale used a unique ability to simplify complex statistics to communicate her findings to government officials. Historians consider her book "Cassandra" (1928) a major feminist work.

Queen Victoria awarded Nightingale the Royal Red Cross in 1883. In 1907, Nightingale became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit.

Hospitals, foundations, and other organizations in her name continue to advocate for improved health care. 
The Florence Nightingale Museum in London commemorates the life of the modern world's first great health care provider

Bibliography

• “Florence Nightingale.” Fynetimes: Gay Greats. July 3, 2007
• “Florence Nightingale.” The Florence Nightingale Museum. July 3, 2007
• Dossey, Barbara. Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2000

Selected Works

• Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not (1860)

Nzinga (1583-1663), Female King of the Mbundu.

Nzinga is renowned in Black history for her courageous part in resistance to the Portuguese colonial power in what is now Angola.

Her father had been the "ngola" or ruler (from which the Portuguese took the name for their colonial territory), and was followed in that position by Nzinga's brother, Ngola Mbande. As a child, Nzinga had been greatly favoured by her father, who gave her the opportunity to watch him closely as he governed, and even went with him to war. Later, she was sent by her brother as envoy to the Poruguese governor at a peace conference,  in Luanda in 1622, aiming to have the Portuguese withdraw a fortress they had built on Mbundu land, return some of her brother's subjects who had been captured, and to put an end to the marauding raids by bands of Portuguese.

She was able to secure a peace treaty - which the Portuguese failed to keep. Her brother then committed suicide, leaving his son Kaza as heir, with Nzinga acting as regent.Instead, she had him killed, and assumed the throne herself. As ruler, she continued to resist the Portuguese in numerous battles, personally leading her army in war, and forming alliances with both the neighbouring African peoples of Kongo in the African interior, and with the Dutch on the coast. She maintained this resistance for over thirty years, until well into her sixties, before finally signing a peace treaty in 1657.

The queer interest in Nzinga rests in her assuming the throne of her people, which traditionally could only be held by men. As she had occupied a position absolutely restricted to men, so she was necessarily regarded as male.  As a man, and as king, it then became important that s/he acquire a harem of wives. As Nzinga was biologically female, her wives then needed to be biologically male, who dressed as women and took female gender roles. 

In the African context, her story is not as extraordinary as it may sound. Ethnographic reports from all regions of the continent have shown that gender roles were traditionally less closely identified with biological sex than in the West, so that wealthy women who could afford it, could and sometimes did acquire wives, and take on the roles of "husband" - while some wealthy men included the occasional male among their "wives".

(See "Africa's Female Kings and Husbands")