Welcome to Litsy!

4⭐️ please don‘t misunderstand me, because I really like this book. It was inspiring and eye-opening. But I have been emotional lately and I don‘t think I was in the right headspace to connect the way I could‘ve. I feel like I should‘ve hit pause and gone back to finish the read another time. So that‘s what I plan to do, despite the fact that I have finished it, I‘m gonna pick it up again later this year and reread it. #ReadBannedBooks for May.

This collection of essays was published in 1984 and includes work from the prior decade. With the exception of 2 essays, each piece could have been published today. Black and queer women still share Lorde's experiences 40-50 years later. I'm not sure what that says about our progress as a nation. Each piece was, of course, well written and thoughtful, and well worth the read. But damn do I long for the day when this isn't so relevant.

Essays on racism and feminism in America that are still relevant today. Occasionally, there was a reference (ex: "a nurse from West Germany") that reminded me how long ago this was published.

I, who has never creased a spine, am now annotating my books (well, the non-fiction books). I have never been able to stick with journaling, but it occurred to me that I have experienced an enormous amount of personal growth between the pages of non-fiction books. I thought this would be a fun way to document that!

New audiobook. Am enjoying Robin Eller‘s lovely voice as she reads Audre Lorde‘s essays

Finally read this collection of Audre Lorde essays, filling in a noticeable gap in my reading on race and LGBT issues. She‘s such a powerful writer and storyteller. Even though these were written decades ago they are still so timely, especially in light of so many steps backwards with the recent Supreme Court decisions.

Finally reading some Audre Lorde. So much of this feels incredibly timely even though it was written decades ago.

Cannot believed I have lived this long without ever having encountered Lorde.

Published nearly 40 years ago, this iconic collection of essays, interviews, and speeches by the self-described "black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde remains as powerful, impactful, and relevant as ever. Here, in these brilliantly intersectional writings, Lorde confronts sexism, racism, & homophobia, all while inviting us to see the potential for political change in social difference and revelation in the erotic.

#BookMoods Day 11: A current #DNF but I hope to finish it eventually. My mood allows me to dip into the essays every now and again.

Slowly savoring, keeping this on my bedside table. I‘m clearly running out of time with this book. Still totally relevant. My first reading of hers.

#SavvySettings Day 9: No need to go to a #Pub when one can have Il Vino Dell‘Amore Petalo Moscato at home. 💕

Because I cannot find a book that #BeginsWith #First - then here is our first meal out as a family on the #first evening of 2022. Sizzling cookie with ube ice cream - it actually works!

OMG OMG OMG
a MUST
audre is my favorite writer she articulates details so eloquently i can feel and smell and see everything written in all of her books
as a lesbian please marry me

#GratefulHarvest Day 9: A #Table filled with freshly-chucked oysters and Audre Lorde. When in Seattle.

Audrey Lorde was such an important feminist thinker. Some of the things she has to say are still so relevant today! Will definitely be picking up more of her work

#shesaid

The essays in this collection is from the 70s and 80s, and sadly they still feel current and as of the could be written today. Lorde writes about how you have to fight for your rights and use your voice and how anyone who is not male and white and heterosexual need to stop arguing amongst ourselves.

#SheSaid

If you‘ve been reading along with me and #SheSaid you‘re not going to be surprised that this was a pick for me. It took concentrated reading to follow these often deep & incisive essays, lose concentration for a bit & you will have missed something & need to re-read, but there is so much here that is still very relevant, she could have easily been critiquing things going on today, she was not only incredibly smart, but ahead of her time.

Discussion time #SheSaid

I found a lot here I related to as a woman (even if it‘s as a handicapped white woman and not necessarily the intended audience), plus I thought the large section about internalized hatred steaming from racism & sexism is something we really need to look at more closely….even white women who vote against their own interests (how much of that is the same type of internalized hatred & anger against ourselves & other women).

The #shesaid choice this month is a powerful, dense piece of history. Audre Lorde's collection of essays give us a snapshot of some of the discussions around gender, race, identity, and politics as the 70s transitioned into the 80s. Her voice and her message are still too relevant to today's world, reminding us how much work we have left to do. @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

For if I take the white world‘s estimation of me as a Black-woman-synonymous-with-garbage to heart, then deep down inside myself I will always believe that I am truly good for nothing. But it is very hard to look absorbed hatred in the face. It is easier to see you as good for nothing because you are like me. So when you support me because you are like me, that merely confirms that you are nothing too, just like me. It‘s a no-win position, a case

Lexie Goldman and I on Lexington Avenue, our adolescent faces flushed from springtime and our dash out of high school. We stop at a luncheonette, ask for water. The woman behind the counter smiles at Lexie. Gives us water. Lexie‘s in a glass. Mine in a paper cup. Afterward we joke about mine being portable. Too loudly.

#SheSaid

Wow, what a powerful book. I wish I‘d read this in my twenties, and again and again. I will revisit this one, absolutely. I‘ve already recommended it to my mom and a friend. Thanks @Riveted_Reader_Melissa for a great #SheSaid selection. My only complaint is I prefer the newer cover over the green one, which is a really minor thing.

❤❤❤❤❤

#SheSaid with @Riveted_Reader_Melissa
Final discussion on Sunday. Until then 🤐

#BookSpinBingo square 3
@TheAromaofBooks

Just a reminder that Hood Feminism is next on our list for October, so put in your library hold and interlibrary loans if you haven‘t already.

And we need a June book, it should be time for a fiction book by then, so start posting your suggestions/recommendation below and I‘ll make up a voting quiz.

#SheSaid

#SheSaid

That‘s a great argument not only for intersectionality… but a great reason to read and understand and listen more!

#SheSaid

Does that not sound like it could have been written about the 2016 election, an evaluation of why white women voted for Trump over Hillary? #SheSaid

Deep stuff, but I‘m loving it. By making us all feel less than the “norm”…which doesn‘t really exist…and therefore think it‘s ok to be treated as less than because we aren‘t good enough.

#SheSaid

Another section of deep essays. You really need to space these out and concentrate when you read them, or I, at least, get lost.

So what did you thing this week #SheSaid. I found a lot that was useful, and sadly still very relevant (and I wish it wasn‘t, that we‘d have moved past, but some of these read like current essays on our dynamics today).

For anyone else who‘s been confused by the “woman-identified woman” that keeps popping up in the essays, I found this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman-Identified_Woman

#SheSaid @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

The audio book wasn't working for me and I got behind in my reading for #shesaid so I hit the bookstore. The Kerouac books are because someone loaned me copies 10 years ago. Don't loan me books unless you are a library.

Sorry for the delay this morning (afternoon now) #SheSaid

How‘s everyone doing with this week‘s sections. I‘m finding them all applicable, even if they weren‘t originally to apply to me, if that makes sense.

THIS: as true now as in 1979.
“I had decided never again to speak to white women about racism. I felt it was wasted energy because of destructive guilt, and defensiveness, and because whatever I had to say might better be said by one white woman to another at far less emotional cost to the speaker and probably with a better hearing.” #SheSaid

It is for black men to speak up and tell us why and how their manhood is so threatened that women should be the prime targets of their justifiable rage. What correct analysis of this capitalist dragon in which we live can justify the rape of black women by black men?....Why isn‘t that male rage turned upon those forces that limit his fulfillment, namely, capitalism? #SheSaid

Since I don‘t think anyone else shared this quote from last week, I decided to post it. As children & women are put into more & more danger situations (whether it‘s climate, COVID rules, legal abortion limits, gun violence) it‘s important to remember that no matter how much other humans might try to shut us down with over talking, ignoring, shouting us down, trolling….being quiet in our separate corners doesn‘t make us more safe.
#SheSaid

#SheSaid I just finished the essay about barriers to women and loving and found it intriguing: as a white person I can‘t fully understand the barriers, and don‘t know what form the take now with more emphasis on intersectionalism, but I like how she challenges the horizontal barriers among women or Black people, and instead pushes people to look at sexism, homophobia, and racism as being fundamental elements to oppression of queer black women.

I transcribed this from the audio, so omitted the page number and punctuation. It occurred to me that some of us in the world have the privilege to question. It reminds me to be more intentional as a teacher to teach and appreciate questioning. #SheSaid

From this week‘s section of our #SheSaid book club pick. Two of us mentioned how this quote felt like a mission statement for our group. Thanks to @Riveted_Reader_Melissa for keeping us reading women‘s voices.

A group of very different speeches and essays this week, I found them all moving in different ways. What spoke to you this week #SheSaid ?

I particularly found myself thinking, not enough has changed since these were written…they feel just as current today, which is sad…you would have hoped we‘d have made more progress in the years since these were written. The one about Silence struck me too, made me think about #MeToo and that the more ⤵️

Settling in to read for a bit today. #SheSaid

Currently listening to Notes from a Trip to Russia. #SheSaid

The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.

Intersection of #SheSaid and #SophiesWorld reading. @GingerAntics @TheBookHippie

I speak here of poetry as a revelatory distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean…

This makes me think of Amanda Gorman and her amazing poetry.
#SheSaid

What gets me about the United States is that it pretends to be honest and therefore has so little room to move toward hope. [talking about how we treat people, in general, racism and such]

Written in 1976, and look how far we haven‘t come.
#SheSaid

Saving this #SheSaid reading schedule here so I can find it later. I‘ve never read Audre Lorde so I am looking forward to our discussions.

Just a reminder that we have Sister Outsider coming up next month #SheSaid, so if you haven‘t put in your library hold yet, you might want to start thinking about it.