Reader: Allison Amaya

Respondent: Will Frith

Recorder: Sheri Lowe

Audre Lorde lived from 1934 until 1992, when she lost her battle with breast cancer. She was raised in Harlem and the daughter of West Indian immigrants. Lorde was inarticulate until the age of five. When she did begin to read and write, it was at the age of twelve that she began to write poetry. Interestingly, she was not encouraged by her parents. Instead, Lorde learned from her mother’s strangeness and her father’s silences. Lorde published her first poem at the age of fifteen in Seventeen magazine. Her high school had refused to publish the poem because it was "too romantic." Lorde wrote of racism in the feminist movement, sexism among African Americans, and of lesbians and love. She was one of the founding members of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Later in her life, Lorde was given the African name Gamba Adisa, which means "Warrior: She who makes her meaning clear." The following quote captures how Lorde makes her meaning clear:

As I have said elsewhere, it is not the destiny of black America to repeat white America's mistakes. But we will, if we mistake the trappings of success in a sick society for the signs of a meaningful life. If black men continue to do so, defining "femininity" in its archaic European terms, this augurs ill for our survival as a people, let alone our survival as individuals. Freedom and future for blacks do not mean absorbing the dominant white male disease. . . As black people, we cannot begin our dialogue by denying the oppressive nature of male privilege. And if black males choose to assume that privilege, for whatever reason, raping, brutalizing, and killing women, then we cannot ignore black male oppression. One oppression does not justify another.

2a - To study the status of women, lesbians, and homosexuals as analogous to that of ethnic minorities in terms of voice and choice and to consider "women of color" as "double minorities"

1. "and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed" - Jut like Sandra in Black Girl Lost, her mother is taking away her voice and reducing her to an object.

2. "I should have been on Math Team/my marks were better than his" - she is being discriminated against because of her skin and her gender

3. "and my skin has betrayed me" - again skin color is discriminated against

4. "There’s nothing I want to do/and too much/that has to be done" - she feels voiceless and choiceless because she is a double minority

The speaker’s set back is whether she will live to see another day.

1. "what if I die /before morning"

2. "suppose I die before graduation"

3. "will I live long enough/to grow up"

4 - To register the minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance.

The speaker appears to be assimilating but it is a struggle for her.

1. "how come my knees are/always so ashy"

2. "I have to learn how to dance"

3. "the one/wearing braces"

4. "I have nothing to wear tomorrow"

The speaker sounds like any typical teenager coping with adolescence, but she must also struggle with being an African American and a female. She brings you into her world by hearing her thoughts that are rapid and randomly jump from subject to subject. The repetition of "and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed" give the allusion of the isolation and desperation of the teen.

What is your first impression of the poem?

Do you know what is meant by the title "Hanging Fire?"

The first impressions the class had of the poem was that the speaker sounded just like a typical teenager. Only the mention of ashy knees gave some inclination to her ethnicity. Charidy noticed that she did not have that "hatched from an egg" idea most teenagers have because they feel invincible. The speaker in this poem is very concerned about death though. Charlie felt that the speaker wasn’t so concerned about dying as she was about the fact that her mother wouldn’t be there for her. Dianna said this poem is cross cultural because everyone experiences what the speaker does at some point. The class was undecided as to how to interpret the boy who still sucks his thumb. As for the style of the poem, the title suggests the attempt to fire off ideas and thoughts, but they don’t seem to go anywhere. Dr. White concluded that the repetition in each stanza is like a chorus or refrain.