Archive Find 1: “Cancer and Lorde’s work”

by Nadia 1 Comment

In thinking about my self-care project, I became increasingly interested in Audre Lorde’s life and work.

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Therefore, for my archive find of the week, I decided to go to the Schomburg and take a look at the Alexis De Veaux/Audre Lorde Research Collection. As I skimmed through the folder names of the archival guide, the “Cancer and Lorde’s work” folder jumped out at me because of my archive finds from last semester in the Lorraine Hansberry papers where I learned about her battle against cancer through her correspondences and get well cards she received. Similar to Hansberry, Lorde associated her battle with cancer as more than just a physical experience: 

“Dealing with cancer has been a spiritual, mental and physical experience. Often, it does not get addressed that way.”
The Des Moines Register, July 3, 1994 (written by Rega)

In order to use this quote from her papers, I would need to cite it appropriately by including the following: the item, date, box #, folder #, name of papers/collection from Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.

Comment ( 1 )

  1. Tiana Reid
    Nadia, the quote you picked is an intriguing one because it doesn't necessarily explain or illuminate but rather it grabs the reader's attention. And so I want to know more about the historical and social context of the quote. Who is Rega? Why was this in the Des Moines Register? Where's your caption? What is the relationship between the quote and the image? What is the image from? Did you create it yourself? Where did you find it? Is there any metadata associated with it?

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