Zami: A New Spelling of My Name is a 1982 autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 by African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 poet Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:...

. It started a new genre that the author calls biomythography.

Explanation of the title

Zami is a carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers.

Plot summary

Audre Lorde grows up in Harlem, a child of Black West Indian parents. Legally blind as a child, she learns to read before going to school, thus stoking up wrath in the Nuns/teachers at her Catholic school. The family's landlord hangs himself for having to rent his flat to Black people; later they take a trip to Washington D.C., where they are refused ice-cream because of segregation laws. After getting her first period at age 15, she makes friends with a small number of non-Black girls, called "The Branded" at Hunter College High School

Hunter College High School

Hunter College High School is a New York City secondary school for intellectually gifted students located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It is administered by Hunter College, a senior college of the City University of New York. Although it is not operated by the New York City Department of...

. She is even elected literary editor of the school's arts magazine - she has started writing poetry. After graduation, she leaves home and shares a flat with friends of Jean's (one of The Branded). At the same time, she also goes out with Peter, a white boy who jilts her on New Year's Eve - she is pregnant and decides on an abortion. After some unhappy times at Hunter College

Hunter College

Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...

, she moves to Stamford, Connecticut

Stamford, Connecticut

Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...

, to find work in a factory, where the working conditions prove atrocious. Following her father's death, she returns to NYC and starts a relationship with Bea, whose heart she ends up breaking when she decides to move to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 to get away from McCarthyism

McCarthyism

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...

. There, she goes to university and works as a secretary in a hospital. In Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...

, she meets a lot of independent women, mostly lesbians; she has a relationship with one of them, Eudora, and works in a library. Back in NYC, Audre explores the lesbian bar scene, moves in with lover Muriel, then another lesbian, Lynn, moves in with them and ends up leaving without warning and with their savings. Finally, Audre begins a relationship with a mother named Afrekete, who decides to leave to tend to her child. The book ends on a homage to Audre's mother.

Characters in "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name"

• Audre Lorde, the author.
• Linda Lorde, Audre's mother.
• Phyllis and Helen, Audre's older sisters.
• The Branded, a set of friends of Audre's at high school.
• Maxine, a Jewish friend of Audre's at high school.
• Gennie, a.k.a. Genevieve, Audre's closest friend in high school who takes dance classes and commits suicide. Possibly her first real love.
• Louisa, Gennie's mother.
• Philip Thompson, Gennie's father who left home early and comes back when she is 15.
• Ella, Gennie's stepmother.
• Peter, a white boy whom Audre dates whilst in NYC
• Ginger, a work colleague of Audre's from the factory at Stamford; Audre's first female lover.
• Bea, another lover of Audre's, met in NYC. Only dated each other because of the mutual fact they were gay. No real connection.
• Eudora, an older woman and lover of Audre's in Mexico.
• Muriel, another lover of Audre's. Her first long-term committed relationship.
• Rhea, Audre's room-mate in New York after returning from Mexico. A straight white woman whose political work was jeopardized by living with a black lesbian, she leaves for Chicago in order to keep her job under the pretense of starting a new life after the demise of a relationship.
• Felicia, a.k.a. "Flee", a black lesbian who has a close but platonic relationship with Audre. Audre's honorary little sister.
• Lynn, a lesbian who lives with Muriel and Audre for a while and is their mutual lover during this time.
• Toni, an old acquaintance of Audre's from high school, who turns out a lesbian.
• Gerri, a black lesbian from Queens
  Queens
  Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
  
  
• Kitty, a.k.a. Afrekete, the last lover mentioned in the book, met through Gerri; she has a daughter and leaves abruptly.

Major themes

• Lesbianism. The book describes the way lesbians lived in New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
  , Connecticut
  Connecticut
  Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
  
   and Mexico
  Mexico
  The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
  
   during the years spanned in the book.
• Racism. The landlord who hangs himself, the ice-cream episode in Washington D.C., the increased suspicion during the McCarthy era all contribute to highlight the theme of racism.
• The mother. Audre's difficult relationship with her mother, whom she credits for imbuing her with a certain sense of strength, pervades throughout the book.
• McCarthyism
  McCarthyism
  McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
  
  and the Rosenbergs are also mentioned.

External links

• New York Times review
• ZAMI: A PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A BLACK LESBIAN by Barbara DiBernard