Saretta Morgan

These poems were taken from a series of transcripts housed in the archives at Freie Universtat, where a lesser-known chapter of Audre Lorde’s life, her Berlin years, is preserved. From 1984 to 1982, Lorde traveled to Germany as a scholar, poet, activist and sister-friend teaching in the university but also rooted in political networks where she supported (and challenged) young German women through mentorship, friendship and example.

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Band 12 Lesung in Der Schoko Fabrik 20.11.1987

someone has asked about my being a
mother      a mother and a lesbian
as though it matters so much the children
who come out from between our legs when we
speak of ourselves as mothers we speak of
being part of something that wont begin
nor will it end with us      part of a line
(katrina wants to summarize      audre:
stops her)      woman in the audience: she
still feels it’s contradictory           audre:
me i found in dahomey images
i had always felt true      that a woman
a woman can be a warrior and
bearer of children      end of tape 12a

Band 27 Audre Lorde in the group ,,Women against Antisemitism“
Berlin, Sept. 30, 1991

i say optimistic because there has
got to be a consciousness that what we
do is absolutely essential to
form the possibility of something
after the worse occurs      because when i
travel I see what I see here      cont. talk
of palestinians in st. croix      group
“peace and justice” they founded      because you
are small you must still know you are very
important      we are the only hope      we
are the only hope do you hear we are
the only hope?      I don’t want to (silence)
I need so much for you to see yourselves
question: effect of peace group in st. croix …

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A Kentucky native raised in Virginia, Saretta Morgan writes things. She prefers to do so in bucolic mountains or on patches of blue grass, but she usually settles for New York City, where she lives and is completing her MFA in Writing at Pratt Institute.