In Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, Audre Lorde speaks to the importance of autonomy and self-ownership of black female bodies \u2014 to be a source of pleasure and introspection \u201cself-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society\u201d (Lorde, 59). Lorde writes, \u201cThe erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings\u201d (Lorde, 54). Lorde is discussing something deeply internal, which goes against the common placement of eroticism exclusively in the realm of the external or physical. To both Lorde and Shange, sense of self is paramount, speaking to the inherent bond between poetry and eroticism.<\/p>\n
On page 55, Lorde writes, \u201cwomen so empowered are dangerous.\u201d In Nappy Edges, Shange too puts sexual expression in conversation with danger, but does so to relay an entirely different message. Shange brings out the apparent irony in Lorde\u2019s statement through examples of men using eroticism to put women in positions of physical danger. These instances of danger present through Nappy Edges\u2019 detailed scenes of sexual violence are physical, and yet they are far from erotic.<\/p>\n
Shange\u2019s decision to define herself as a poet (rather than a playwright) is powerful in that it establishes ownership of her narrative \u2014 she is not writing to put on a performance or to wear a costume of another, she instead writes her own poetic, deeply introspective, narrative. \u201cSome men are poets. They find wonderment & joy in themselves & give it to me. I snatch it up quick & gloat. Some men are poets\u201d (Shange, 20). Shange then closes her piece reaffirming her stance as the poet she is by noting that she will keep writing poems ten years from now and beyond; she will continue to affirm her own selfhood and that of other black women finding their voices and owning their narratives, as this introspection of poetry and eroticism is a luxury not afforded to many women, especially not women of color. Thus, For Shange, poetry is something erotic in the way Lorde uses the word \u2014 it\u2019s a source of power through raw recognition of internal consciousness and internal desires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, Audre Lorde speaks to the importance of autonomy and self-ownership of black female bodies \u2014 to be a source of pleasure and introspection \u201cself-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society\u201d (Lorde, 59). Lorde writes, \u201cThe erotic is a measure between the beginnings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[333,20,21],"class_list":["post-2292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-audre-lorde","tag-nappy-edges","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2316,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions\/2316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}