Google Spotlights On Caribbean American Writer On Her 87th Birthday

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Feb. 18, 2021: As Google continues to mark Black History Month, the search giant today spotlighted on a Caribbean American writer on what would have been her 87th birthday.

Audra Lorde, born in New York City to Caribbean immigrants from Barbados and the Grenadian island of Carriacou, is today’s Google Doodle.

Lorde would go on to become a celebrated poet, feminist, professor and civil rights champion.

Google’s homepage features artwork from guest artist Monica Ahanonu. The Doodle shows some of Lorde’s published prose alongside additional artwork.

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not lead single-issue lives. Our struggles are particular, but we are not alone. What we must do is commit ourselves to some future with the particular strength of our individual identities,” the prose reads.

Google also released a behind-the-scenes video detailing Lorde’s life and the creation of the Doodle.

Lorde, a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” confronted homophobia and racism in her first collection of poems, 1968’s ‘The First Cities.’ Her work often explored identity, sexuality and social and racial justice.

She taught poetry at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, where she helped spark the Afro-German movement of the 1980s. She released a collection of essays in 1984 titled Sister Outsider.

Lorde was awarded the American Book Award in 1989 and was honored as the poet laureate of New York State through the Walt Whitman Citation of Merit in 1991.

Lorde died on November 17, 1992 in Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands. She had two children – Elizabeth Lorde-Rollins, Jonathan Rollins from her marriage to Edwin Rollins between 1962–1970.