This collection of essays and journal entries documents Audre Lorde’s experiences living with terminal liver cancer while maintaining her work as a Black lesbian feminist activist. The text details her decision to refuse aggressive surgery, her time at a holistic treatment clinic in Germany, and her analysis of the relationship between global political struggle and personal health. Lorde defines self-care as a political act of survival rather than indulgence, arguing that maintaining one’s physical wellbeing is necessary for resisting systemic oppression and continuing the fight for social justice.
Readers interested in the intersections of disability, race, and sexuality read this book to understand how to sustain activism during periods of illness. It appeals to those studying sociology and womanism who want to see how personal stamina affects political movements. The reader walks away with a framework for viewing bodily health as a tool for resistance and a direct look at how one writer confronted mortality while refusing to abandon her public commitments.
- Published
- 1988
- Language
- EN
Quotes by Audre Lorde
More →The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.
Sister Outsider
Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.
A Burst of Light
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
