The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action

by Audre Lorde

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Poetry, Essays, Philosophy, Race, Gender

15 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1977

About the author

Audre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone."

Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.

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Reviews

[Fiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tell them about how you're never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there's always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don't speak it out one day it will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside.”

[charlie shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

"within the war we are all waging with the forces of death, subtle and otherwise, conscious or not - I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior"
"For to survive in the mouth of this dragon we call america, we have had to learn this first and most vital lesson - that we were never meant to survive"

[Hoda Nagm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her words are liberating.

[Tanis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"To question or speak as I believed could have meant pain, or death. But we all hurt in so many different ways, all the time, and pain will either change or end. Death, on the other hand, is the final silence."
"We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and our selves are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid."

This is so inspiring.

[Nuha A. Al-Soufi. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lorde was arguing to make us hear her voice, she was talking while she knew that this words could be the last thing we can touch that came from her. she believes, and I do too, that we all should share and speak up about what we really believe in even if we are afraid to. cuz by doing that we're able to see and connect with people have the same thoughts and ideas, despite differences we may have. being silent is dangerous. it's right that we will face so many struggles and troubles while we're trying to speak up, but don't you try to forget that even being silence is another war for yourself but without any chance to feel free and act like a winner. SPEAK UP!!

“Where the words of women are crying to be heard, we must each of us recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them and examine them in their pertinence to our lives…there are so many silences to be broken.”

Lorde knew what she was talking about, and I do believe that she saw and went through so many struggles that neither I nor any woman I knew has been through... the power she had, the words she can say, being able to be against the silence .. these things we all wish to be able to do. I can talk, I can share, but I don't think that I feel free enough to speak up the way she did. especially with the world itself! people would never stop doing what they have between their hands or be quiet for a minute only to hear what you have in your deep. the people around aren't strong enough to face and share, they would never talk!
they would never listen!
we can just stay in the back of everything and watch, cuz this action is nothing but silence. and silence allows injustices to go unheard and fears to remain powerful.
Sharing is useful, we all must share and help each other to speak up loudly.let's kill the silence and be the winners this time... For us, and for Audre Lorde.

[Maddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this essay as part of Sister Outsider and I return to it now for guidance amid current events.

"I was going to die, if not sooner then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences. And it was the concern and caring of all those women which gave me strength and enabled me to scrutinize the essentials of my living."

"What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? Perhaps for some of you here today, I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am woman, because I am Black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself - a Black woman warrior poet doing my work - come to ask you, are you doing yours?"

Are you doing yours?

[grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

“in becoming forcibly and essentially aware of my mortality, and of what I wished and wanted for my life, however short it might be, priorities and omissions became strongly etched in a merciless light, and what I most regretted were my silences. of what had i ever been afraid? to question or to speak as i believed could have meant pain, or death. but we all hurt in so many different ways, all the time, and pain will either change or end. death, on the other hand, is the final silence. and that might be coming quickly, now, without regard for whether i had ever spoken what needed to be said, or had only betrayed myself into small silences, while i planned someday to speak, or waited for someone else's words. and i began to recognize a source of power within myself that comes from the knowledge that while it is most desirable not to be afraid, learning to put fear into a perspective gave me great strength.”

[Lucía · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Your silence will not protect you” (…) “Each of us is here now because in one way or another we share a commitment to language and to the power of language, and to the reclaiming of that language which has been made to work against us”.

*El fanzine “Aprendí tu lengua para maldecirte” me recordó mucho a este texto.

Tatúate estas páginas, hazte un favor. Es un ensayo/discurso breve, parte del libro Sister Outsider. Me doy cuenta de que me encanta leer discursos directos (Lorde, Anzaldúa en su carta, Rivera Garza…).

[Its_me_its_P · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could write this well the way I would be (more) insufferable than I am now like holy shit.

Its like magic what the fuck.

I found myself reading sentences over and over again and thinking about the construction and content of them like a literary asshole, but fuck me it was good what the fuck.
Anyway so I liked it if you can't tell it was fucking transcendent in opened my third eye and shit.

[Pudsey Recommends · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior’

‘And of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation’

‘The weight of that silence will choke us … for it is not difference which immobilises us, but silence”

‘And there are so many silences to be broken’

[maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired. For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.”

PELOS DE PUNTA

[Nico Heyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired. For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.”

[Krishana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audre Lorde is unmatched. In this essay, Audre makes the case for no longer silencing or censoring yourself. She explains that death is the ultimate silence and how a near-death experience taught her to live loudly snd boldly.

[allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak.”

am so incredibly grateful to have to read these kinds of things for school, especially in a time like right now.

[Anusha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can barely go a day without thinking about or rereading this essay. Every line remains just as powerful as the first time I read it.

[Magdalena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will no longer be silent because I deserve to be heard and listened to. Thank you Audre, I consider myself very lucky and proud to be a part of your community. Let's go lesbians!

[hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think this just changed my life.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly something I believe every person should read at one point in their life.

[hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

audre lorde my lord and saviour

[elise-is-reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want this essay burnt into my brain

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wtf. Wow. Yeah yeah. Still relevant as ever. God. I need to read more of her stuff

[karabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL

[sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

el ensayo más bonito y emotivo que he leído nunca 🤍 will cry myself to sleep after this one

[wik! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audre Lorde you would love the writings of Michiyo Fukaya!

[Jerry Shi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful and relatable to emotions beyond women and civil rights. Written extremely clear and readable.

[Tevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is
that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because
the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or
not we speak.”

[Bookforum Magazine]

"Unfortunately, most people do not participate in efforts to transform society, even when their own lives are at stake. When we are not the targets but the witnesses to someone else's victimization, we have a very different responsibility: to intervene. This, too is an obligation most people avoid because they fear losing status and access. A complicit bystander can be the most dangerous person on earth."

–Sarah Schulman on Audre Lorde's The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action in the Feb/Mar 2017 issue of Bookforum

To read the rest of this review, go to Bookforum:
http://bookforum.com/inprint/023_05/s...

[Blake Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

"the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway"

Wow