Audre Lorde was a writer, poet, feminist, and most importantly, a trailblazer. Born in New York City in 1934 to Grenadian immigrant parents, Lorde had been drawn to poetry since she was young. She writes that she used to “speak in poems” and that writing poems became a way for her to express her feelings.
She attended several Catholic schools before she graduated from Hunter High School. Afterwards, she earned her B.A. from Hunter College and a master’s degree in Library Science from Columbia University. Early on in her career, Lorde spoke to the difficulties of being a Black, queer woman in white academia. In one of her most famous essays “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House”, she articulated the need for intersectionality in the women’s liberation movement.
Lorde dedicated her life to the causes of feminism, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and Black cultural exploration. Her poetry became renowned for its call to action for the cause of civil rights as well as its exploration of gender and sexuality. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Lorde’s writing continued to evolve. She wrote The Black Unicorn, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, and Sister Outside: Essays and Speeches during this time. Her work continued to emphasize and redefine the borders of gender, class, race, and sexuality.
In 1981, Lorde and her friends established the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, a coalition dedicated to spreading the works of Black feminists. Additionally, she created the Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, which offered aid for women in apartheid South Africa. She remained a vocal activist about this topic, and urged the U.S. and the world to act. Consistently, throughout all of her writings, Lorde emphasized our sameness, our humanity, and argued that our differences–of class and race–should be “a reason for celebration and growth”. Her message was one of unity; she believed in the importance of learning from each other and using differences as strength.
Lorde was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977. During this time, she wrote about the medical racism she experienced as well as how cancer treatment and mastectomy were “shrouded in silence” for women. Additionally, she felt that the resources for healing and coping with the trauma were designed for white, heterosexual women. In an effort to shine a light on this difficult topic–and to highlight her own struggles, pain, and hope—she published The Cancer Journals in 1980.
Lorde was a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Hunter College. Additionally, she earned honorary doctorates from Hunter College, Oberlin College, and Haverford College. She was the recipient of many awards, including the 1990 Bill Whitehead Memorial Award and the 1991 Walt Whitman Citation of Merit, making her the Poet Laureate of the State of New York.
During these times of strife, Lorde’s writings serve as a reminder of our shared humanity. Our differences do not have to divide us–they are our strengths that propel us towards holistic, communal action. As Audre Lorde writes, “What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities. And in order for us to do this, we must allow each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.”
Becoming her:
When one thinks of royalty, images of castles, elaborate balls, and precious wealth come to mind. Until recently, the images surrounding British monarchy were of men sitting in their regal robes, once young boys destined for the throne. However, after one remarkable figure that image changed to a woman sitting on the throne. Queen Elizabeth altered the way people perceived royalty and who was fit to govern.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was not born to rule. Her childhood unfolded beneath the shadow of other monarchs. After her father, George VI, inherited a crown he never wanted, Elizabeth’s life ceased to be private. The Second World War hardened this transformation. While Britain burned, she trained as a mechanic, learned discipline, and absorbed a lesson that would define her time as queen: endurance matters more than brilliance.
Elizabeth became queen at 25, inheriting a fractured empire on the verge of dissolving. In order to protect her country, Elizabeth sought to change with the times rather than remain a beacon of the past. Former colonies were granted independence, Britain was redefined as a post-imperial state, and the monarchy survived because it simultaneously lightened up on authority while preserving the important symbolism. Rather than being the most vocal in the room, Elizabeth chose silence as her mode of governing.
However, she faced a variety of challenges. For instance, during the late twentieth century the monarchy’s relevance,economic decline, labor unrest, and cultural rebellion eroded deference. Within the palace, personal failures became public knowledge: divorces, scandals, and televised confessions ruined the illusion of royal distance. The death of Princess Diana in 1997 marked the most dangerous moment of her reign. Public grief turned quickly into public anger. The monarchy survived by learning to appear human, vulnerable, and relatable.
Elizabeth II presided over Britain’s transformation into a globalized, media-saturated democracy where institutions survived only if they adapted. She embraced visibility without surrendering neutrality. Prime ministers came and went, from Churchill to Blair andThatcher to Cameron, while the queen remained fixed, a constitutional constant amid political volatility. Abroad, the Commonwealth replaced the empire: looser, symbolic, and strategically ambiguous.
In her final decade, Elizabeth became less of a ruler and more of a landmark. Brexit fractured Britain’s political identity, Scotland questioned the union, and Northern Ireland reopened old wounds. Through it all, the queen remained a steady presence. When she died in 2022, the reaction was mass mourning. She had come to embody stability itself, even as the structures around her weakened.
Elizabeth II had such a monumental impact on not just British history, but also world history. Her reign was not marked by decisive action but by disciplined stillness. She understood that in a declining power, symbolism could outlast authority. The crown endured because she refused to let it disappear. In the end, her legacy was not solely about the empire, or reform, or charisma, but continuity and grit.
Both women, Queen Elizabeth and Audre Lorde learned that in order to survive and create a lasting legacy, a strong presence is crucial. But more importantly, the person behind that presence must be someone of strong convictions, morals, and a desire to see a change. Both women were seen as people on the outside of the laws and positions of power that granted them the ability to make the world a more fair place for people like them. Yet, through the use of their skills, whether it was Audre Lorde’s writing or Queen Elizabeth’s ability to strategize, they were able to make a lasting impact for generations of women.