Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but also commonplace
Review: A strong voice in both African-American women's literature and lesbian literature, Audre Lorde is likely someone as alien to my experience as anyone could possibly be. Well, at least someone who was born and raised in the U.S. At first, I found this biography fascinating, but it began to tire me about halfway through. I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt like everything was commonplace, rather than distinct and unique.

But then, maybe that's her point. That lesbians, blacks, women, or what-have-you, are commonplace. That they are no more objects for sensationalism or titillation than yourself. Yes, there might be some individuals who live exciting lives, but the vast majority of them are the same vast majority of all of us, living quiet lives of trials and joys, successes and failures. This is likely the reason why Lorde does not talk about her success as a poet or writer, instead trying to focus the reader on her life as a life of the ultimate minority in society, who has the same humanity as anyone, but suffers under the present system.

For further reading, I would like to check out Lorde's poetry, to see if that is more appealing to me in its artistry.

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Summary: What is a ¿Biomythography¿?
Review: Audre Lorde, best known for her gifted poetery and essays, leaves us with this striking autobiography of her early years as a writer, and as a struggling black lesbian in NYC. Slowly, through gentle inflections of her Grenadian roots and development of the ideas of Caricou society, she stitches together a number of very personal 'mythographies,' ultimately weaving a passionate, touching and mythic telling of her life. Beautifully told, fascinating to read, I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Transcends race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation!!
Review: Definitely one of the best books ever written. I often have my students read it because regardless of their backgrounds they find some level of connection to the text. This is a novel that is so multifacted that everyone can enjoy it. I recommend it without hesitation.

Rating:
Summary: An essential American life story
Review: In "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name," poet Audre Lorde has written a text she calls a "biomythography." I think of "biomythography" as a literary form that blends elements of autobiography, the novel, and personal mythology. But however you define the word, "Zami" is a powerful and beautiful text which illuminates the life of an African-American lesbian in the mid-20th century.

"Zami" begins with the young Audre and her parents, a Black immigrant couple who had settled in New York City. Lorde writes in detail of her cultural heritage from the Caribbean island of Grenada. From her childhood in Harlem to her young adulthood, the book is full of fascinating episodes and poetic language. Lorde's description of using her mother's traditional mortar and pestle to grind spices in the Caribbean style is a particular tour-de-force of sensuous language.

Lorde describes the roots of her life as a poet. She also vividly recalls what it was like to be a young Black lesbian in the 1950s. This particular aspect of "Zami" gives the book a special historical value. Lorde's narrative captures many of the cultural and political particulars of that era.

Audre Lorde attained a distinguished literary reputation as both a poet and essayist. But serious readers of Lorde must not miss her extraordinary "biomythography." This is an essential American life story which ranks up there with those of Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Jacobs, Malcolm X, and other important figures. Whether you're interested in the Caribbean-American experience, African-American literature, lesbian studies, or mid-20th century United States history, you will want to explore "Zami."

In this book Audre Lorde writes, "Every woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me." If you read "Zami," Lorde just might leave a lasting print upon you.

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Summary: A Memorable Portrait of a Difficult Life Shaped By Zami
Review: In "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography," Audre Lorde writes that "[e]very woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me." Thus, "Zami" serves as a window into Lorde's experiences with other women-especially her mother-who informed and shaped her life from childhood into adulthood within the context of romantic links and friendships, especially during turbulent and conflicting periods in American history. For example, Lorde describes a difficult childhood at school and at home during the poverty ridden 1930s. Especially revealing about this moment in time is Lorde's fascination with her mother's strength and courage amidst racial discrimination-which, according to Lorde, went unnamed. As a result, she grew up in a world where difference was much more assumed rather than defined and interrogated.

Consequently, this colored Lorde's world later as she formed special bonds with other women, which she termed "The Branded," a group of Lorde's "sisterhood of rebels," who used difference as a bond to challenge the status quo. This form of difference became pronounced, in addition to racial and gender difference, when sexuality became a threat during an intense anti-communist hysteria in the 1950s, which equated homosexuality with communist affiliation. In sum; to be black, female and queer in white McCarthy Amerika was a triple threat from which loneliness would emerge as a central factor plaguing Lorde's life.

However, Lorde's romantic links and friendships with other women would shape her survival and leave an everlasting legacy for later generations of lesbian women, especially black lesbian women. Tragically, some of Lorde's experiences with love and friendships were shattered by loss and mourning. Nevertheless, the collected instances of intimacy with other women shaped her life as a queer woman of color defining "Zami," a term specifying women working in unison as lovers and/or friends.

Lorde meticulously unfolds her narrative by using imagery and symbols as a way from which to tell her life story on an intimate level. The choice of words and images are compelling. For example, her trip to Mexico is described so vividly that I almost feel as I am there. Her description of New York gave me a sense of what life was like during a poverty ridden period in an urban setting. The description of clothes, faces, and bodies-especially within an erotic context-are remarkable. In sum, Lorde was a poet genius in her prose alongside her poetry.

"Zami" is an excellent read for courses in Women's Studies, Women's History, Women's Autobiography, African American Studies, Queer Studies, Lesbian and Gay Studies, and ethnic studies.

Rating:
Summary: An essential American life story
Review: In "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name," poet Audre Lorde has written a text she calls a "biomythography." I think of "biomythography" as a literary form that blends elements of autobiography, the novel, and personal mythology. But however you define the word, "Zami" is a powerful and beautiful text which illuminates the life of an African-American lesbian in the mid-20th century.

"Zami" begins with the young Audre and her parents, a Black immigrant couple who had settled in New York City. Lorde writes in detail of her cultural heritage from the Caribbean island of Grenada. From her childhood in Harlem to her young adulthood, the book is full of fascinating episodes and poetic language. Lorde's description of using her mother's traditional mortar and pestle to grind spices in the Caribbean style is a particular tour-de-force of sensuous language.

Lorde describes the roots of her life as a poet. She also vividly recalls what it was like to be a young Black lesbian in the 1950s. This particular aspect of "Zami" gives the book a special historical value. Lorde's narrative captures many of the cultural and political particulars of that era.

Audre Lorde attained a distinguished literary reputation as both a poet and essayist. But serious readers of Lorde must not miss her extraordinary "biomythography." This is an essential American life story which ranks up there with those of Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Jacobs, Malcolm X, and other important figures. Whether you're interested in the Caribbean-American experience, African-American literature, lesbian studies, or mid-20th century United States history, you will want to explore "Zami."

In this book Audre Lorde writes, "Every woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me." If you read "Zami," Lorde just might leave a lasting print upon you.

Rating:
Summary: Zami is amazing! Yet another reason to love Audre Lorde!
Review: One of the things I loved about this book was how descriptive Audre is about everything. She has the amazing ability to really put me right in the scene, because her attention to details paints such a vivid picture. You can almost taste what she is eating, touch what she is touching and so on... Audre's work often makes people hold her up as if she was more then human, this book let's you know how very human she was and for me, it let's me know how important it is to be "doing my work," as she put it in the "Transformation of Silence." Hey, are you doing yours?

Rating:
Summary: Zami is amazing! Yet another reason to love Audre Lorde!
Review: One of the things I loved about this book was how descriptive Audre is about everything. She has the amazing ability to really put me right in the scene, because her attention to details paints such a vivid picture. You can almost taste what she is eating, touch what she is touching and so on... Audre's work often makes people hold her up as if she was more then human, this book let's you know how very human she was and for me, it let's me know how important it is to be "doing my work," as she put it in the "Transformation of Silence." Hey, are you doing yours?

Rating:
Summary: Worthless Dravel Masking Itself As A Book of Substance
Review: The Dipper is offended. A slightly "odd" friend of mine recommended this book as an example of "why written words were invented". With that rather nebulous review in mind when I found this book in the nickel bin at a local flea market, I sat down to give it a try. See, The Dipper, is "open-minded"!!! Within the first few pages, the miasma began floating in the air. Soon, I was rummaging in my closet for my hip-wader boots! "Biomythography"? Is that a wasting disease? "Zami"? Should I say "gesundheit" after someone makes that sound and hand them an anti-bacterial tissue with lotion? The most ludicrous waste of ink and paper was the part where a character spent time with a mortar and pestle grinding spices while blubbering on about something else. This sent the Dipper off to the copy machine at work to photostat many copies of a smiling Rudy Guiliani. I read a few more pages to confirm that this book was in fact the piffle I suspected. Upon quick confirmation, I snuck out a side door at the office with the Rudy pictures, the offending "Zami, a New Spelling of My Name", a metal wastepaper basket, and a Zippo lighter. Audre Lorde's best work went up in flames by the dumpster as Smiling Rudy looked on in approval and your's truly did the Dipper VooDoo Dance around the basket. Recycling is a great thing and Dipper is proud to do his part! Save your nickel!!!

Rating:
Summary: This is a book for those sisters who know OUR pain
Review: Zami was one of the first books i read in my teens that helped me deal with the loneliness of being a young black woman in this world. It touched me and understood every word of the pain she felt...this book is a classic