New Books in Critical Theory

Alexis Pauline Gumbs, "Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde" (FSG, 2024)

Sep 19, 2024

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an acclaimed scholar and poet who delves into the life and influence of Audre Lorde. Gumbs discusses how Lorde's concepts of survival extend beyond personal resilience to encompass our relationship with a dynamically changing planet. She highlights Lorde’s ecological imagery as a vital framework for understanding identity and community. The conversation also touches on Lorde's activism and her responses to historical hurricanes, drawing connections between personal narratives of survival and broader social movements.

55:07

Episode guests

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

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Quick takeaways

Audre Lorde's philosophy of survival emphasizes the importance of collective effort and community in overcoming oppression and adversity.

The podcast highlights Lorde's deep ecological engagement, viewing her natural world imagery as essential guides for living sustainably on Earth.

Deep dives

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Intro

2min

Echoes of Audre Lorde: Identity and Survival

14min

The Devastation of Hurricane Hugo: Survival and Storytelling

3min

The Impact of the 1898 Windward Islands Hurricane

2min

Hurricanes, Activism, and Legacy

9min

The Rise of the New Jewel Movement in Grenada

2min

The Legacy and Influence of Audre Lorde

21min

We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer, a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofit annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde's teachings on "the creative power of difference" may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today.

Lorde's understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. Possibly the focus on Lorde's quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has led us to ignore her deep engagement with the natural world, the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For her, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to survive--to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.

In Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (FSG, 2024), Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde's manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth.

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