Syracuse University sponsors celebration of the life and work of Audre Lorde

Syracuse University sponsors celebration of the life and work of Audre LordeNovember 12, 2002Michele M. Jachimmmjachim@syr.edu

In celebration of poet-activist Audre Lorde’s life, a coalition of student organizations and Syracuse University departments will mark the 10th anniversary of her death with a commemoration of her life and work on Nov. 16 from 4-8:30 p.m. in the Watson Theater Complex.

The celebration will feature a showing of the film, “A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde.” Michelle Parkerson, assistant professor in Temple University’s Department of Film and Media Arts in Philadelphia and co-director of the film, will speak about making the film and other important aspects of Lorde’s life.

In addition to the film screening and Parkerson’s discussion, there will be student, faculty and community member presentations of Lorde’s work, as well as an open forum session during which all members of the audience are invited to share recollections of Lorde and her significance in their lives.

Lorde was born in 1934 in New York City to Caribbean immigrants who had settled in Harlem. She graduated from Columbia University and Hunter College, where she later held the prestigious post of Thomas Hunter Chair of Literature. Audre Lorde was awarded the Walt Whitman Citation of Merit, which conferred the mantle of New York State’s Poet Laureate from 1991-93. Her artistry and activism advocated for racial justice, women’s equality, and lesbian and gay rights. She died in 1992.

The commemoration event is co-sponsored by the African American studies department; the Committee on Women and Art; the English department; Hendricks Chapel; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; the Office of Residence Life; Open Doors; Pride Union; the Student Affairs Programming Council; the Student African-American Society; the University Senate Committee on LGBT Concerns; V-Day Syracuse; the Women’s Studies Program; and the Writing Program.

“We are pleased to join together with such a wide diversity of organizations and departments to co-sponsor this celebration of Audre Lorde’s life and activism,” says Adrea L. Jaehnig, director of the LGBT Resource Center. “We encourage the campus community and our University neighbors to attend this program and understand how Lorde’s work and the struggle for racial justice, women’s equality, and lesbian and gay rights can connect us, rather than separate us.”

For more information, contact the LGBT Resource Center at 443-3983.