Gloria I. Joseph - The Wind Is Spirit: The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde

PART I
Things Happen: A Call and Response Biography of Audre Lorde

PART II
Pleasures and Politics of Traveling with Audre

PART III
The Indelible Influence and Impact of Audre Lorde

SECTION ONE
Audres Memorial Service, New York City, January 1993

SECTION TWO
Breaths of Sorrow, Solace of Love

SECTION THREE
Hope and Healing: Berlin, Germany

SECTION FOUR
The Balm of Home in St. Croix, V.I.

SECTION FIVE
Poetry Is Not a Luxury

SECTION SIX
Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Activism and Healing

PART IV
Resting and Rising: Scattering the Ashes

PART V
Keepers of the Flame

Acknowledgements

Life aint no crystal staircase, to borrow the title from a Langston Hughes poem, but the Villarosa familyLinda, Alicia and their mother, Clarawas a gem as I climbed a staircase in search of a publisher.

A number of publishersmainstream, small independent, socially conscious, feministall rejected my proposal. Their objections encouraged me to keep on climbing that staircase in search of a publisher. Basically, the genre I was using, although not entirely new, was a departure from the tried and true biographical style and involved risk taking. Villarosa Media took that risk and deserves my consummate acknowledgement. Linda, Alicia and Clara, my deepest thanks to you for having faith and trust in my vision.

I acknowledge the comfort and support folk, the ones who offered encouragement and support from the crack of the gun to the finish line. My deep appreciation to the following, who were loyal and faithful to the core: Cathie Dunsford from New Zealand/Aotearoa, for consistently sending her kia kahas and arohas (Stay strong and much love); Diane Burns, St. Croix friend and fellow golfer; Chenzira Davis Kahina, my comrade in culture; and Melinda Goodman, who introduced me to Villarosa Media and kept me on track with her unwavering allegiance to the book.

I graciously thank and appreciate the financial support given to me during the initial phase of the book from Char Levitt and Jill Stevens, Diane Burns, Leslie Raymer, Jeanne Simmons, Carla Wallace, Sky Cohen and Dagmar Schultzwho also generously provided many photos.

The secretarial work, including computer expertise, was provided by Lynda Muhammad, Adjoa Claudette Young-Hinds, Rose Mulgrav and Johanna Bermudez-Ruiz, who was instrumental in molding the very first draft. Immense thanks for your enthusiasm and efficiency.

Persons from the younger generation gave voice to new and vital perspectives. Alexis Pauline Gumbs visited me on St. Croix and her ideas and discourses were profound and valuable. Chahney Hinds helped with editing pieces from her contemporaries. Aishah Shahidah Simmons introduced me to The Feminist Wire and conducted interviews, as did Reverend Irene Moore. The industry and involvement of these women was useful and graciously appreciated.

To Winifred Oyoko Loving, thanks and appreciation for reviewing, organizing and selecting from hundreds of photos for the book.

Opal Palmer Adisa was invaluable. Her humor, talent and skills as author and poet were on full display as she religiously edited, encouraged, argued, cajoled and provided healthy lunches for me. I extend major kudos to Lynda Mohammud, who faithfully and steadfastly provided computer expertise, creativity in cover designs and dexterity in her unofficial role as sounding board during the final stages of the book. I owe Jacqui Alexander unlimited thanks for her role in the books publication. In a very real sense, she kept the spirituality, the African ancestral aspects of Audres relationship and the interaction of karmas that are essential to Audres relating to people alive in this work. Jacqui is a former professor of the University of Toronto, Canada, and the present director of the Tobago Center for the Study and Practice of Indigenous Spirituality.

Finally, I offer oceans of gratitude and appreciation to my partner, Helga Emde, for her fortitude and nurturing throughout the life of the book. Her support and concern carried me through the highs and lows of writing.

Foreword

Calling All Women, Men, Children, Calling All Oceans, Skies, Clouds, Butterflies: This Is a Love Poem.

by Sonia Sanchez

I am still learning how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed. AUDRE LORDE

My room at a monastery eighteen years ago was named St. Augustine. St. Augustine in reflecting on the mystery of times said that he knew what time was but did not elaborate. We live in two basic dimensions of time: Chronus and Kairos. Chronus time is mathematical time. Measured and calculated. The time of clocks. Calendars. There is also Kairos time, which is the time of the sacred. The holy. The inbreaking of God in the affairs of humankind. Sister Audre. When you walked into Kairos time in the 1960s, you became holy with your love for our people. Women. Children. Truth and activism. You and your congregation of sisters and brothers fighting for freedom. Jobs. Sexual and racial and economic justice, became a force of truth and encountered God.

Sister Bernice Reagon told me one day about the great blues singer Little Brother Montgomery, who said: We all come here naked. Black folks know it, but white people dont know it because they come here white. White people dont come here naked. Their skin is an additional currency, puts them far ahead. He said, We all come here naked and must make arrangements for someone else while youre here, not just do for yourself.

And, my sister, how you made arrangements for us. We saw it in your eyes as they carried life to the people. We saw it in your hands as they revived the dead in our northern and southern moorings. You stood tall as lightning as you responded to the trumpeters of death called colonialism. Sexism. Segregation. Homophobia. Imperialism. And your mouth caught fire as you moved us away from graveyards to our own births.

You told us/reminded us of the killings of grandmothers, young women, teenage boys in america. You reminded us of our names, deleted from herstory and history. You told us what you saw. Felt. You gave us truth and called it art.

James Baldwin wrote, The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers. And you, my sister, brought forth the questions residing in the past and present about lesbians and gays in our communitiesand your answers gave us a new name: Zami, for women who work together as friends and lovers.