Rereading Audre Lorde's Symbols of Power

• In Event: Butch and Femme Histories, Practices, and Communities: Toward a Critical Intersectional Pedagogy of Love and Repair

Abstract

U.S. woman of color feminist writings are often primers for coalitional work (Author, 2019). It requires close attention to the practices of women of color writers and theorists, where a scholar of this work must learn to read a little differently, to recognize intersectional violence, to “world”-travel to each other’s worlds, and understand the kinds of relations that are necessary for coalition. As a butch educator and ethnographer, this paper is a meditation on a passage in Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, A Biomythography (1983) that has stayed with me for many years. Centering on a passage where Lorde meditates on the symbols of power she observes on black lesbian butches, particularly their dress and ways of representing themselves, this paper remediates this passage, offering an infrapolitical reading of black butch symbols of power.

Theoretical Framework. This presentation derives its theoretical framework from infrapolitics, defined by James Scott and Robin D.G. Kelley as the space of offstage practices (Scott, 1990, p. 4) and the creation of “dissident political cultures that manifest itself in daily conversations, folklore, jobs, songs, and other cultural practices” (Kelley, 1993, p. 77). Infrapolitics are the daily strategic practices of the black working class resourcefulness and innovation that help them negotiate their continuous scrutiny and containment by those in power. It is the community room hush arbor, the smoking area, or a place where power is unable to surveil black workers. It can also be a space outside of white supremacy– a place of rest and leisure or a location where black lesbians can talk freely amongst one another, avoiding the watchful eyes and ears of authority. It can be a hangout or a church or a bar, where black lesbians can enjoy their bodies, dance, dress to impress, and share knowledge.

Methods. This is a paper based on an interpretative reading of narratives from 2 memoirs–one by Audre Lorde and another from my own unpublished memoir. I weave Audre Lorde through my experiences as a butch high school teacher, learning from students how a practice of butch literacies is necessary to build coalition and support LGBTQ+ students as they learn to negotiate the often racist and heterosexist practices that are offered in schools.

Author

• Cindy Cruz, University of Arizona
  Presenting Author