And, when the project came to me, they were very much interested in collecting her entire body of work, instead of one or the other.ĪLLISON MCGEVNA: Do you feel sometimes like you have to live up to a legacy that you’ve created, sort of maybe similar to what I’m sure Audre felt in her life as well? But I felt like her poetry deserved equal attention. And we all know about The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House and her Cancer Journals, and her prose gets quite a lot of attention and deservedly so. GAY: Well, she’s a phenomenal poet, and some of her most profound work is in her poetry. Why was it important for you to dedicate literally half the book to it? MCKENZIE: Why was it important for you not only to showcase her prose, but her poetry? Oftentimes when we think of Audre, it is her essays or the striking speeches that she gives, but not so much her poetry. And so, it was definitely challenging because I was like, “Let’s just put it all in.” I still try to do my best in terms of thinking through what I wanted to include and why. But, she was really prescient and impressive, both in her nonfiction and her poetry. And it’s frustrating that it’s still relevant, because that means that the world has not changed enough. One of the most incredible things about Audre’s work is that she’s timeless, and she has created work that is still relevant.
![roxane gay over broadway my beloved roxane gay over broadway my beloved](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/4f/11/1a/4f111a8cf7a983f4844c9ad65bcc56e0.jpg)
ROXANE GAY: I didn’t really have a methodology beyond what spoke to me and what I thought would be relevant right now.
![roxane gay over broadway my beloved roxane gay over broadway my beloved](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NcvT94Pvb08/V4BAH4WJugI/AAAAAAAAB7o/rk-UXVeW_3AeI__axvw3DB1JOqbn1bwlwCLcB/s1600/JB1.jpg)
JOI-MARIE MCKENZIE: How do you go about approaching an artist like Audre, and trying to put her work together?
![roxane gay over broadway my beloved roxane gay over broadway my beloved](https://44.media.tumblr.com/4c619dd8c331d3c0053c0f2e5d8c43a6/tumblr_p4ezquRpU21vehtqxo4_500.gif)
In a conversation with ESSENCE editors Allison McGevna and Joi-Marie McKenzie, Gay discusses the selections for the anthology, her own legacy and when she first fell in love with words. The acclaimed poet passed away at age 58 on November 17, 1992. Gay selected poems from Lorde’s nine volumes, including The Black Unicorn and 1974 National Book Award finalist From a Land Where Other People Live.