...be whole and their capability for expanding their lives will be increased. Audre Lorde has written: Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence...18 Understanding and expanding our erotic potential is essential for not only our growth,...

...lives' pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy of which we know ourselves to be capable. Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence . . . The demands of our released expectations lead us inevitably into actions which will help bring...

...Building on this point, the second contention is that such knowledge provides power. In Lorde's words, Once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our...their relative meaning within our lives. And this is a giave responsibility, projected within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the...

...erode knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens thtough which we scrutimze all aspects of our ex1stence, forcing us to evaluate those aspects honestly in terms of their relative meamng within our lives. And this is a grave responsibility, projected within each of us, not to settle...

...the erotic in women's lives. Lorde, a Black, lesbian feminist immigrant from the Caribbean, wrote: Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through...their relative meaning within our lives. And this is grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy,...

...the erotic is so feared, and so often relegated to the bedroom alone, when it is recognized at all. For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of...our existence, forcing us to evaluate those aspects honesdy in terms of their relative meaning within our lives. And this is a grave responsibility, projected...

...explains why those who would contain it so often relegate it to the bedroom, when in fact erotic energy "becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence . . . [causing usf not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the...

...with it a certain power. The African-American poet feminist Audre Lorde wrote, "[K]nowledge is power. Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through...honestly in terms of their relative meaning within our own lives." Marie Howe, in her poem "Practicing" (cited in full following), writes of the power of...

...of the Erotic" (1984), she reveals the transformative power of the erotic in black women's culture: "Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens...evaluate those aspects honestly in terms of their meaning within our lives" (1984:57). The cultural critic and scholar bell hooks claims that black women's...

...fragility of dawn, the cruelty of chiming bells" uncannily prefigures Lorde's claim that the erotic "becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence." Perhaps it is the poet's eye in each of them that facilitated their entry into the erotic. & At this...