Audre Lorde

I am looking up info on Audre Lorde for a project. The non-profit I am involved with, and Justice for All, is having an annual event this Saturday, and as part of the program, we are having a roundtable with historical figures commenting on a couple of topics. In honor of Black History Month, the topics are Pressy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education, and the disparity of race on Death Row. I am playing Audre Lorde in the roundtable, and I need to learn about her to play her tomorrow!

A quote I like that I have found:

Our differences are polarities between which we can spark possibilities for a future we cannot even now imagine, when we acknowledge that we share a unifying vision which supposes a future where we all may flourish, as well as a living earth upon which to support our choices   --Audre Lorde--

This quote is very much in line with the Dao, which sees no absolute, only many sides and parts that inform the whole, which is greater and wider than all known perspectives. By being open to and informed by all perspectives, we grow and develop.

I can relate to this easily in the context of trans issues. My perspective has broadened tremendously over the last couple of months, moving from seeing the transgender diaspora as fairly homogeneous, to seeing the huge diversity of thought, which can be highly polarized. Overall, I feel the extremes, in which the other perspectives are considered invalid, and even wrong and hostile and detrimental, to be dead ends. To me, growth and progress lie in what Lorde refers to, a synthesis and transcending of the various experiences and positions into a more promising future, which we cannot even imagine from our defended little corners of experience and perspective.