In "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power," Lorde disputes the idea that eroticism is frivolous, arguing that attending to one's erotic instincts can offer great insight and personal fulfillment.
Indeed, Lorde writes, Black women are frequently urged to compete with one another for the attention of men, to the detriment of both race and gender-based solidarity. Lorde argues that men's fear of Black women becoming close with one another is based on sexism and is ultimately harmful to the struggle for racial justice. "Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving" dwells on the twin issues of homophobia and sexism within Black communities. She urges readers to speak out and openly share their emotions and fears, explaining that doing so can result in both personal catharsis and political action. Lorde shares her story of getting a tumor surgically removed, and explains the resulting epiphany, as she dwelled on her own mortality, that silence was more regrettable than speech. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" uses memoir as a starting point from which to grapple with politics. She identifies this hierarchical, binary approach as part of a patriarchal European mentality, and encourages readers to view poetry as a necessary bridge between emotion and rationality, two equally important parts of a whole. In "Poetry is Not a Luxury," Lorde unpacks the view that poetry, along with emotion and instinct, is inferior to and opposed to rationality. Ultimately, Lorde remains ambivalent on the issue of whether life is better in the capitalist U.S. She compares the cities she encounters to ones she already knows, in particular New York City and Accra, Ghana. In a series of sketches, Lorde describes the landscapes and people of Moscow and Uzbekistan.
The first, "Notes From a Trip To Russia," is compiled from notes Lorde took during a trip to the U.S.S.R. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speechesis comprised of fifteen individual sections, each of them in the form of an essay, speech, or letter.
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