Audre Lorde, "The Fourth of July" (1982)

What is Audre Lorde’s full name?

Audrey Geraldine Lorde

When was Lorde born?

1934

Where are Lorde’s parents from?

Grenada

What group of women was Lorde’s work committed to uplifting?

Queer women and Black women

What is the title of Lorde’s 1982 “biomythography”?

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

What is the name of Lorde’s 1978 poetry collection?

The Black Unicorn

What is the name of Lorde’s 1984 essay collection?

SIster Outsider

What is the name of Lorde’s 1988 essay collection?

A Burst of Light

What is the name of Lorde’s 1980 breast cancer memoir?

The Cancer Journals

What award was Lorde given a year before her death?

Poet Laureate of New York state

Was the mutual intimacy Lorde frequently wrote about provocative, or was it more platonic?

platonic; she focused on deep connections between friends and allies

What is the title of Lorde’s most famous essay?

“The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”

To Lorde, what fact must be recognized in order to have transformative intimacy occur?

The world is never experienced uniformly by people

Where is Lorde and her family travel in “The Fourth of July”

Washington D.C.

What was the occasion for Lorde going to D.C.?

To celebrate the Fourth of July, and because she graduated from 8th grade and her sister, Phyllis, graduated from high school

What year was the trip taking place?

1947

What did Lorde’s mother not tell her about the dining car?

Black people weren’t allowed in the dining car

What was the issue with Phyllis’ senior class trip to D.C.?

Phyllis didn’t go because they would be staying in a hotel that didn’t rent rooms to Black people

What was Lorde’s parents’ strategy for dealing with racism?

They handled it privately and did not discuss it with their children

What did Lorde recognize the Lincoln Memorial for?

It was the place where Marian Anderson had sung after the D.A.R. refused to allow her to sing in their auditorium because she was black

What is contrasting about the reality compared to what Lorde saw on her trip?

Lorde saw monuments to freedom and past presidencies and democracy, but this is not what was actually happening in the US

What happened at the Breyer’s ice cream and soda fountain?

Lorde’s family was denied service

What color contrast does Lorde develop at the end of her essay?

She describes everything as white in D.C. (white ice cream, white marble counters, white waitress), but she and her family are black

What type of narration does Lorde implement?

retrospective narration (an older and wiser version of the person looks back on past events)

In what essay does Lorde describe that “it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence”?

“The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”