Audre Lorde reads Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power (FULL Updated)

[@JolPil]

This is important, it is about becoming alive, more and more alive, the state fears a truly living human who feels the deepest joy imaginable and shares it. Joy is a goddess in itself. The erotic is about feeling so alive that even your surroundings catch it. Feeling so alive that you need nothing more than your own existence.

[@johannasellman4831]

😊

[@annswanberg6272]

o that's beautiful, thank you!

[@adeshe22]

You are right; joy is a goddess; her name is Het Heru.

[@mywingedwords]

I was assigned this video, as an aspect of a Master's class, The Philosophy of Love. OMG, I wept, listened to it again, and wept some more. What a call to POWER, sisterhood, and love of our innate creative energies. I dove deeper into her freaking amazing work and regret only that it took until this day, to appreciate her passionate writings. This is what happens when transformative work is labeled "Black studies" or "LGBTQ studies" - we need ALL studies, all wisdom. Audre Lorde's wisdom lives on and I intend to teach it in the work I do too. Thank you Ms. Lorde, you made this planet better for all.

[@huzzzylake]

What else was in the curriculum!!

[@happygucci5094]

" ...and use without the consent of the used is abuse..." This speech is a call to freedom. Thank you Sister Outsider - you made the ancestors dance with Joy. Rest in Power, in the fullness of Eros Audre Lorde

[@tanjacava8585]

animals right now being abused endlessly 😢

[@GennaSingleton]

This absolutely moved me and spoke to a core truth. Erotic is potent creative life energy that we all possess. Its a creative force that can take you to your authentic self and connects you to purpose. Embracing the erotic is freeing yourself to say yes to life!

[@SeanIRobin]

Wonderful to hear her voice reading this - I read the text many years ago in college, and also was able to hear her speak, ~ a powerful presence, she was.

[@carlrose8619]

"You only are free when you realize that you belong no place- you belong every place- no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great" -Maya Angelou "You must learn to proceed with out certainty" - Anonymous "I feel, therefore I can be free" - Audre Lorde

[@DanielLatorre]

Wow! Thank your for posting this, never knew this existed This essay is sublime and so needed.

[@brownsugamiles920]

I wish I could watch this ! Just amazing to hear her speak these profound words. Resonates with my true identity and empowered me to be myself.

[@frogboy420]

her voice is so soothing that i fell asleep listening to this as if it were asmr

[@aishwaryabajpai9]

🎯 Key points for quick navigation: 00:00 *Power of erotic* 00:42 *Recognize internal strength* 02:00 *Erotic vs. pornographic* 04:57 *Encouragement through excellence* 08:29 *Reassessing work quality* 12:06 *Fear of joy* 13:39 *Demanding self-fulfillment* 18:34 *Sharing feelings essential* 22:12 *Action through connection* 22:54 *Bridge differences united* Made with HARPA AI

[@captain_kaay]

This makes me feel powerful

[@zoearp9565]

Because you ARE powerful

[@LizaFan]

@@zoearp9565 So true.

[@jochanaan58]

This white man needed to hear this! Although I cannot know with any depth what Audre Lorde went through, nor her deep feelings, I too was taught to fear and limit the Erotic. Yet we who call ourselves allies and accomplices to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people must hear what they are saying. We must not center ourselves in this fight! Yet we must recognize our own capacity for the Erotic, and recognize too that as AL says, it is diametrically opposed to the pornographic. Only with Erotic passion and strength will we overturn the power structures that crush us all.

[@eloisereid4626]

this is the key to our freedom

[@elastictrash]

SUCH a powerful piece written decades ago in her 1978 essay in Sister Outsider, "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power". So powerful still today for those with and still working on opening their hearts and understanding what real power is. It’s never the taking or abusive kind but more of a symbiotic natural kind connective approach to growth.

[@Ezzyyie]

Never have ever listened to anything that reasonated so powerfully with my being!

[@soliloquylove2115]

Thank you! I'm back again for my yearly listening. Esther Perel is piggy backing on this as of late.

[@JaggedEdgeBouldering]

oh no... i hope with credit.

[@Dream-Me]

@@ppegah Did you hear back from her? Just wondering/concerned.

[@Dream-Me]

@@ppegah what is the email address as I don't take this lightly either . I will be posting it in some of my black girl groups and they wil be emailing her also 🤷🏾‍♀️either credit her or stfu lbvs!😅

[@Dream-Me]

@@ppegah I'll keep you posted.

[@athenacharlotte3800]

@@Dream-Me wow. You know Esther Perel is the daughter of Holocaust survivors right? She is of a people who have been oppressed for millennia and subjected to horrific genocide in the 20th century. You sound angry as if she is some racist white Karen stealing from black women. You know nothing of the oppression she and her people have faced!

[@rationraw5017]

“For example, what do you mean a poetic revolutionary, a meditating gunrunner, will they exist? They exist in the room.” She said it. “Lesbian thing” is a benevolent, mutually beneficial understanding, the nursing, the harmony with the nature, the appreciation of love which helps you to balance the distortion of this world.

[@leahshannon759]

this was incredibly insightful and enlightening

[@artisttemple8268]

Brilliant, Mother Mentor. Miss you. 🙏🏾✨

[@SoulfulVeg]

This was so powerful. I'm going to have to give it multipack listens to obsorb ut all.

[@SharonStewartArnhem]

Can anyone help me with where and when this recording was made? Was it at the Fourth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Mount Holyoke College, on August 25, 1978? I've been Googling everywhere but not coming up with an answer.

[@jilliancainghug1419]

ALL OF THIS 🙏🏽

[@PtPony]

As far as I know, there is no video of the speeches at that 1978 conference. The speech is in a magnificent book of Lorde's, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.

[@happygucci5094]

Brilliant book. By a beautiful, brilliant mind.

[@stevenhanson6057]

It’s called, living with a person clothed and dying on the vine. She said she was sad. He said he was bad.

[@k8mckay578]

Omg I LOOOOVED this so much

[@JacquiLinder-qi1tn]

So much power in this piece.

[@nmcpherson224]

Thank you for sharing this!!!!

[@SingwithTeacherBrittany]

Wow. I am so grateful for Audre's insights and her brave challenging of thinking that I've been socialized in. I feel a new recognition of when I AM living my erotic pleasures into action, and I feel inspired to embrace my ideas, pleasure, and pursuits with even more passion. I will offer that any gender can experience this and has a right to, but I don't feel that is what she is saying - she is claiming out right as women that has been hushed out of us for submission and servitude. What a speaker - as worthy of remembrance as MLK or Alexander Hamilton.

[@Aero212King]

Women are powerful. They have the key to unlocking the intrinsic intelligence of the universe and white men have destroyed that - like everything and everyone else. It is a truly sad world we live in these days. Audrey Lorde is an incredible woman.

[@deed5049]

Yet, everything is as it should be.

[@radioheadfanlove]

@growbean Hello there, I couldn't find a way to message you directly...hoping to ask you: Is there any way you can share where the original copy of this audio may be / where I could try to reach out for a copy? I'm working on a project and have been trying to track down where the original copy of this audio exists, and/or who recorded it. Thank you for your help and time!

[@karinhald9295]

Hey @radioheadfanlove - did you ever find out? Im also looking for an answer to this...

[@radioheadfanlove]

@@karinhald9295Unfortunately no! Wasn’t able to find out!

[@bloodstone816]

Maferefun Ancestor Motha Master Teacher Audre Lorde 🥹🫶🏿🙏🏿 Axé e Saudades demais sempre ❣️🧎🏿

[@thecorndogwalker1]

every man and woman needs to hear this... period...

[@mikerichter1694]

You're right!

[@happygucci5094]

Absolutely 💯

[@embadge]

Beautiful. ILL BE BACK IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS

[@julianafv3805]

Where was this recorded? Sounds like a conference? What year?

[@1rmoreynd]

🌈Excellent, sensible and rational presentation with a basic vacancy of balance. Joy is dependent upon the balance of two genders moving in harmony.💥

[@zenzeleisoke8544]

thanks for sharing this beautiful teaching resource!

[@PtPony]

Hey Growbean, can you cut out the duplication in the ending in the last seconds? It's so clear and awesome otherwise.

[@rxgub]

Chills

[@ChrisMaxwellRose]

Where is this recording from please? I would love to know who to ask to use a clip of this recording on a podcast! Thanks!

[@agtarr]

she talks about being at a conference, if that helps track it down...

[@valeria1715]

It was delivered at the 4th Berkshire Conference if Historyof Women at Mount Holyoke in 1978

[@badbunnyky]

18:24 oof ouch owie my heart

[@josephinekeijzer2316]

Wow An education right here and long overdue

[@susies286]

🙌❤ wonderful

[@chacmoolyoga8933]

I want this speech tattooed on me

[@karinhald9295]

Dear Growbean. I wanted to write you with an inquiry as to have permission to use this recording in an art work, but I can't seem to find a email to reach you - I hope you will see this and we can get in touch. Thank you for this beautiful upload!!

[@deed5049]

"Understanding is a handmaiden...which can only wait upon or clarify that knowledge deeply borne." I heard a Moorish scientist say of the children that they come to teach the parent, which lessons are based upon the birth sign of the child, i.e., I as a Gemini was meant to teach communication. In the Nation of God's and Eraths (which name, in my opinion, offers a gross negligence of the power of the feminine) the Supreme Mathematics teach knowledge, wisdom, understanding or 1, 2, 3 or man, woman, child with the child being the best part.

[@jojogrillteat1900]

0:57

[@jahishamalik7848]

❤

[@shannvanderleek1111]

Potent AF

[@yellowblue4045]

💜

[@Idkijustlike2useYoutube]

interesting from a pysch pov

[@HeadShoht]

Still have no clue wtf this essay is about

[@frogboy420]

thats on you homie

[@Cutzieepie]

Am i the only one that doesnt understand this reading at all

[@Cl3olyn]

Lol you're not alone

[@Caihizzybaby]

Replace the phrase “the erotic” with sex. Think of sex as it is physically amongst humans and spiritually; Chi; our life force; the essence of creation; our gifts; what we will contribute to the universe while we are here

[@mr.katnip1513]

Imagine, every time you baked some cookies, or a cake, you had an ORGAZM!! THEN THE LOVE OF THAT ART would come from the interior place of your being rather than a ‘work now, get paid later’ kind of place. You would do it for free, as it were, rather than running through the gamut of exercises for the effect rather than the exercise itself. Imagine being able to allocate that POWER to everything you do, to the point that you don’t do a thing because you expect it to be good but because the performance itself, the creativity, the moment in itself becomes the driving force, rather than the outcomes. Now you’re not subject to outcomes, now you are the force determining the outcome!! 😇😇😇😇😇😇😇

[@lakeshiaparker9270]

Some get it some don't

[@floroey]

It is dense, and she reads it a little fast. Try reading the text to tease it apart a little more. Or slow down the video speed to soak it in better. Definitely worth it-changed my life for the better/ happier.

[@saylorquin4259]

Why is society afraid of the erotic?

[@edwardhaydn4048]

00:57

[@AnotherRandomChannel13]

Thank you so much for posting this! I love this essay, it's extremely introspective and has helped me connect more with my own feelings. 💙💙🩵