17 pages • 34 minutes read
Audre LordeCoal
Audre LordeFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1976A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context
Audre Lorde was a notable figure in the Black and lesbian poetry communities of the 1960s and 1970s. Lorde worked to create a space for Black women in the mostly white feminist movement of her time. Her poetry, like that of the people in her communities, pushed back against the idea of the universal experience that was included in the modernist poetry ideal. The personal is considered political by Lorde and her contemporaries.
Lorde generally wrote in free verse and emphasized concision, or brevity (using few words). She believed that poetry’s concision makes it accessible to marginalized individuals and is well-suited to represent their personal experiences. According to Lorde, “of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is…the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper” (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 294). Lorde interacted with poetry in a pre-internet era, consuming and producing it in physical media. Her fascination with scraps of paper can also be seen in the paper wager simile in “Coal.”
Historical Context
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States began in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, due to the systemic oppression of Black people. While some sources emphasize the 1950s and 1960s as the central era of the movement, this omits important historical information. Activism towards everything from labor rights to the right to a jury trial occurred across the country, for over 100 years. The 1960s represented the period in which Black activism succeeded in receiving recognition from traditional and emerging media outlets, such as television. As a result, Lorde was an important and visible activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Because of the previous decades of sustained effort, in the 1960s, protests, publicity, and art from oppressed groups took effect. At the same time, changing demographics from the baby boom and "white flight" (a time in which white families left cities for the suburbs) created areas where previously isolated communities were able to work together. This organization would lead to larger-scale efforts, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which further legitimized the political power of Africans and African-Americans. Along with existing political unrest from America’s unpopular wars in Vietnam and Korea, these efforts resulted in rapid legal and Constitutional changes, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
According to The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Lorde is among the “best-known lesbian poets” (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 798), partially as a result of her activities during this time. In addition to being a poet, she was an energized activist, traveling around the United States and internationally to work towards women’s education, economic justice, and racial equality.
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By Audre Lorde
