Audre Lorde was one of the most influential figures of her time and still today. Lorde’s powerful and prominent, sometimes angry, but always brilliant writings and speeches defined and inspired the American feminist, lesbian, African-American, and Women of Color movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Lorde expanded her influence in 1984 when she traveled to Berlin. From 1984 to 1992 Lorde made several trips to Berlin, teaching and sharing her stories and legacy to German society (Wilder 1). While in Berlin, Lorde helped Germans to discover the Afro-German identity movement.
Lorde documented her time spent in Berlin throughout her writing. In the poem, “Berlin Is Hard on Colored Girls”, we are able to read about her experiences in Berlin. Prior to Lorde’s time spent in Berlin, World War II had occurred. Upon arriving, Lorde had noted that she should feel the racial tension that haunted the streets of the city. Lorde stated, “The city itself is very different from what I’d expected. It is lively and beautiful, but its past is never very far away, at least not for me. The silence about Jews is absolutely deafening, chilling” (Wilder 1). With World War II and the Holocaust in the not so distant past, people were fearful, especially people of color. The reign of the Nazi’s was a mass racist hate crime that instilled fear into all races. Lorde however, saw their fear as a chance to spread her power and strength throughout Berlin. “Berlin Is Hard on Colored Girls” exemplifies the difficulties of finding a black woman’s love in the streets of West Berlin. It also embodies how she is able to connect and identify herself with Afro-Germans and women of color in Berlin. The poem begins with the line, “Perhaps a strange woman”(Lorde line 1). By starting the poem in this way, it is framed around this strange woman. Who is she? Why is she strange? Is she different? The poem suddenly becomes about identity and estrangement. But an important connection to make is that although the poem is about her observations of Berlin, it is also about Lorde herself. Throughout all of Lorde’s work, we have seen that Lorde is able to make connections to others by their differences and their struggles. She speaks out on her oppressions which allows others to feel that they are not alone. She became a voice for many different groups of people including: American feminists, lesbians, African-Americans, and Women of Color. None the less, in Berlin she was able to use her struggles to show Afro-Germans that they were not alone. Later in the first stanza, Lorde uses descriptive language such as “kittiwake birds, the lizard, gray whales” (Lorde lines 6,7,12). This is where we are able to make the connection of Lorde questioning her own identity along with Berlin’s. Berlin does not have kittiwake birds, the lizard, and gray whales, but Lorde’s non-U.S. home spaces in Grenada and Saint Croix do (Farber 152). It almost is as if Lorde is tracing back her roots, pondering herself and her past, where she’s from, where she’s been. Much like those in Berlin were doing at this time.
Moving onto the second stanza, Lorde begins with “I cross her borders at midnight” (Lorde line 16). Although Lorde never mentions the Berlin Wall specifically in this poem, she strategically divides her poem into two stanzas. Almost as the border she is referring to is the Berlin Wall which divides Berlin in two, and her poem into two stanzas. She does this in a way that highlights division, division of Berlin, division of the poem. She ends the poem with a reference of a nightingale, “A nightingale waits in the alley/next to the yellow phone booth”(Lorde lines 31-32). Nightingales when used in poetry such as “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats, have become a symbol for division: life or death, masculinity and femininity, silence and expression. The nightingale represents Berlin at this time (Farber 153). It was divided by the Berlin Wall and its people were also divided, as was Lorde. The people of Berlin were divided by race, fear, and gender. Lorde, who also struggled with these things, used it to connect to Afro-Germans. In doing so, she was able to help create the Afro-German identity movement. She was able to use her own struggles and connect with those around them. While studying Lorde throughout this course, I have been able to realize that Lorde takes her fears, insecurities, trauma, and oppressions and uses them to become powerful and strong. She created a voice for not only herself, but for those around her who needed someone such as Lorde to help right the injustices around them. Not only was she able to do this is America, she was able to help a struggling Berlin.
- As I stated in my post, Lorde finds the injustices, oppressions, and struggles around her to make connections with her audience. Do you feel that you share any injustices, oppressions, and struggles with Lorde?
- After reading “Berlin Is Hard on Colored Girls”, do you think that the “strange woman” is the Berlin Wall? Or an actual woman? (This is something I wondered while reading and thought hearing your comments would help me to understand!)
Work Cited:
Farber, Paul. “I Cross Her Borders at Midnight.” Audre Lorde’s Transitional Legacies, edited by Stella Bolaki and Sabine Broeck, 2015, pp. 152-153.
Lorde, Audre. Berlin Is Hard on Colored Girls, 1986.
Wilder, Charly. Audre Lorde’s Berlin, The New York Times, 19 Jul. 2019, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dn36LUZan6GgZHbFpxJouSBZmhvTWEK0/view. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.
Skip to content