Audre Lorde Memorial Held Memorial Celebrates Lorde’s “SpiritandH er Life” By Joanna Corman Staff writer Members of the bi-college community gathered together last Friday to honor the memory and celebrate the life of late poet Audre Lord. Lorde, who received an honorary doctorate degree from Haverford College, passed away on November 17, 1992 atter a 14-year battle with cancer. “‘Audre Lorde was and is a member of our community. She is somebody who really embodied a lot of the ideals we share a commitment to in the bi-college community.... She was areal inspiration to many of us and continues to be,” said Haverford Dean Randy Milden. Haverford senior Isabell Leshko, a strong force in organizing the memorial, coordinated it because “‘so many people did not know who Audre Lorde was. I saw that asareal shame [considering] how important her work is.” | Leshko wanted to “educate people while celebrating [Lorde’s] spirit and her life. [Lorde’s] words are extremely powerful and I wanted other people to hear them.” A moment of silence and reflection preceded each speech honoring Lorde. After Milden spoke, feminist scholar Minnie Bruce Pratt described what Lorde meant to her. “Nothing is ever going to.come close to what Audre meant to me. Every sentence is connected to something in my life,” she said. From Lorde, Pratt “learned how art and truth can spring organically from [her] life.” Pratt described Lorde’s writing, “the way in which her poet’s mind developed the relation between beings.... She strove to draw two dissimilar things together,” the “essence” of metaphor poetry. Pratt remembered Lorde both as a teacher, and through teaching Lorde’s work herself. While Pratt taught, Lorde would periodically contact her, to let her know she was aware Of her intellectual pursuits. “I learned a lot about good teaching from Lorde’s encouragement,” said Pratt. She continued, “I saw not how one can teach didactically, but instead by bringing Elizabeth Lorde Rollins, right, daughter of poet Audre Lorde, and feminist scholar Minnie Bruce Pratt at the memorial in Lorde’s honor last week. Photo by Mike Ciul. people into the body of your life.” Pratt recollected how her students “were physically drawn into [Lorde’s] words. There was a literal physical change by entering into her work and that her work demanded that.” “With her passing, a lot of us feel left in the landscape, with our ownconsciousness,” said Pratt. She recalled Lorde as a woman [who] was not telling the truth for us, [rather] she told me what could be done and it was up to me to take responsibility for it. Audre’s challenge was always, ‘What are you going to do with your own hand:?,’ “What are you going to do with your own anger?’ ” Pratt then recalled an anecdoteconveying Lorde’s character. After Lorde would speak to an audience, she would refuse applause by saying, “Don’t give it to me. I want you to think. I’m here to do my work, are you doing yours?” Bryn Mawr Professor Jane Hedley, who has taught Lorde’s works for over ten years honored Lorde. “Tt is an electric experience having a poem of Audre Lorde’s read in the classroom,” commented Hedley. Hedley read an oratory by Lorde rather than a poem because “her oratory would bring [Lorde] into the room more for me than a poem.” Elizabeth Lorde Rollins, Audre Lorde’s daughter, remembered Lorde last. Rollins addressed the audience, “I am very touched by your words and what you read.” She did not want to talk about the many awards and > the lives Lorde touched. “No one talks about the things that she needed, things that nurtured her, that I believe prolonged her life.” “Audre taught me many things,” said Rollins, one of which “is the will to ie how far itcan carry you... how itneeds to be supported.” Rollins described Lorde as a “brilliant woman who enjoyed life and knew how to party.” During Lorde’s last two years, while she experienced physical limitations, “she was still writing, and would party ’til dawn.” Rollins read some of Lorde’s poems that will be published this summer, poems she was working on during the last years of her life. The last poem Rollins read, “The Electric Slide Boogey” ended with a sentence exemplifying Lorde’s spirit: “It is hard to relax, to sleep in the middle of life.” LORDE, continued on page 11. Gay Pride Week Capped Off With Dance Tonight By Jeff Beringer Staff writer “Lesbians Have Bad Hairdays” “T wouldn’t have come to Haverford if I were a lesbian,” said Haverford first-year student Ana Maria Sencovici, “I would have gone to Bryn Mawr.” “Bisexuals Get Married.” “I haven’t really talked about {homosexual issues] since the sexual or? 2ntation peer awareness group,” said first year student Gretta Doctoroff, “Gay Men Eat Pizza.” “Homosexuality is just something very distant to most Haverford students,” said BGALA (Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Alliance) member and first-year student Kathy Danek. “It’s just not a part of their lives.” In an effort to deal with the relative invisibility of lesbian/gay/bisexual students at Haverford, BGALA members late Sunday, under the cloak of darkness, in an action they have dubbed “vampire night,” posted small colored paper triangles with messages similar to the three above all over the campus. Besides being amusing and provocative, the triangles served as a reminder that homosexual and bisexual issues exist at Haverford and are not being addressed. The sightof the triangles Monday morning, April 5, was the first indication to students that BGALA was christening their annual _ LesBiGay Pride Week celebration, which has been ongoing this week. The final event in the celebration is at 10:00 p.m. tonight: the BGALA sponsored dance “Club Heaven,” a Tri-college new wave Club style bash invitees to which include all Tri-college students (straight or queer), as well as students from colleges throughout the area, as near as University of Pennsylvania, Eastern, and Temple, and as far away as Penn State and Princeton. Sophomore and BGALA member May Mon Post who is organizing the dance said, “All of us in BGALA wanted to have a dance party. We’ve been doing a lot of political stuff, and we thought a dance party would be more social. It will be a fun, PRIDE WEEK, continued on page 11.