The second day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to “Kujichagulia”, a celebration of self-determination. Audre Lorde recognised the value of this principle as a tool against oppression. Born Audrey Geraldine Lorde in 1934, she became “Audre Lorde” at age 4, the first of her many acts of self-determination. <br><br>Lorde's work does not champion any single identity as central in the fight for equality. As a lesbian, she faced homophobia from black rights activists who claimed that she was a threat to society. As a black woman, she had to fight to be heard in an academic arena which would not acknowledge its own racism. She believed that racial equality, feminism and gay rights would only succeed in tandem: one without the others was incomplete and bound to fail. <br><br>For Lorde, homophobia, sexism, and racism arise from viewing “otherness” as a threat to one’s own identity. She asks her readers instead to embrace the creative potential of their different identities. Lorde argued for a central role for “intersectionality” years before Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the word. <br><br>In naming herself, Lorde asserted her right to existence as a multitude of oppressed identities. Speaking at the 1977 Modern Language Association in Chicago, she asked the audience why they had reason to fear her: "Because I am a woman, because I am Black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself — a Black woman warrior poet doing my work — come to ask you, are you doing yours?"<sup>1</sup>.<br>