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“I’m still trying to figure out what self-care means to me. What does self-care mean to you, either in this pandemic or in general? So, one thing that I think about with Lorde is how that self-care quote of hers gets thrown around on the internet a lot, often by people who just don’t seem to get it. The Coast: What does Audre Lorde mean to you, on a personal level? Here, in advance of Sunday’s event, she tells The Coast what questions she’s done answering, what it takes to be your authentic self and more:
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It promises to be life-giving stuff-since, as Gay fans know, hers are the sort of quotable lines that help make sense of the world for all who inhabit it. Gay will be virtually appearing at this weekend’s online Afterwords Literary Festival, to give a talk on Sunday October 4 at 4pm via Zoom. (“The hardest part was choosing what to include, because Lorde was so prolific,” Gay says of the project, which will firmly lift Lorde out of influencer #selfcare posting purgatory and into the hands and minds of a new generation of readers.) She has kept busy during this hellscape of a year, from writing the only missive on pandemic cooking you actually need to read to promoting her newest project, an anthology of works by the self-described “Black, mother, warrior, poet” Audre Lorde, she edited and wrote the intro for.
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The living cultural touchstone who has shaped modern feminism has a soft laugh and deeply considered answers that march out quickly. The New York Times bestselling author and journalist has just finished self-isolating in Iceland, so she’s understandably keen for an efficient chat (after all, her first day of site-seeing awaits). It’s early morning Halifax time when Roxane Gay answers her call from The Coast.