Irmã Marginal, a canonical work in feminist studies, brings together — across essays, speeches, letters, and interviews — some of Audre Lorde’s most significant texts from 1976 to 1984. Deeply rooted in the experience of living on the margins of a “mythical norm” — white, thin, male, young, and heterosexual — Irmã Marginal focuses on redefining the notion of difference, not as something to be merely tolerated, but fully acknowledged as a dynamic, creative, and enriching human force. By expressing this difference through the interwoven categories of race, class, age, gender, and sexuality, Lorde urges us to break silences, transforming them into language and action. She leaves a profound mark on feminist thought and a legacy more relevant than ever today, drawing on the power of anger, the strength of eroticism, and poetry as a space of resistance.

Audre Lorde (1934–1992), a towering figure of Black feminism, was a renowned American poet and thinker.

A forerunner of intersectional theory and decolonial critique, she embraced her multifaceted identity, publicly presenting herself as a “Black lesbian mother warrior poet.” She dedicated her life to fighting racism, sexism, homophobia, and invisibility. A librarian and English professor, Lorde forged meaningful alliances and worked actively, leaving behind some of the most influential works in the development of contemporary feminist theory.

She received honorary doctorates from several universities and served as New York State Poet Laureate from 1991 to 1993. In 2020, she was posthumously honored with a place in the American Poets Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.