description Our Dead Behind Us Overview
Our Dead Behind Us is a poetry collection by the acclaimed American author, poet, and activist Audre Lorde, published in 1986. The collection explores intersectional themes of race, gender, sexuality, and mortality, reflecting Lorde's deep commitment to lesbian feminism and global anti-racist movements. Many of the poems address political struggles, including apartheid in South Africa, while also examining the personal impact of Lorde's ongoing battle with cancer. It stands as a powerful testament to her belief in the necessity of naming and confronting systemic injustice through art.
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What subjects does Audre Lorde address in Our Dead Behind Us?
The collection joins intimate experiences of Black womanhood and lesbian identity with anti-racist and anti-colonial politics. Published in 1986, it treats memory and the dead as forces shaping present struggles for liberation.
How does Our Dead Behind Us relate to Sister Outsider?
Sister Outsider gathers Lorde's essays and speeches, while Our Dead Behind Us develops related ideas through poetry. Reading the two together shows how her arguments about racism, sexism, sexuality, and silence move between political prose and lyric form.
Is Our Dead Behind Us primarily personal or political poetry?
It deliberately refuses that separation, moving between relationships, ancestry, violence, and international liberation movements. That approach reflects Lorde's insistence that identities such as Black, woman, lesbian, mother, and activist cannot be treated in isolation.
Where does Our Dead Behind Us fall in Audre Lorde's career?
The 1986 book belongs to Lorde's mature period and appeared after collections including The Black Unicorn. It was published while she was already widely known as both a poet and the author of influential prose such as Sister Outsider.
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