Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934 in New York to parents who immigrated from the West Indies. She learned to speak, read, and write around age four and wrote her first poem in eighth grade, which was later published in Seventeen magazine. In 1962, Lorde married a man named Edward Rollins and had two children before divorcing in 1970. However, in 1968, she moved to Tougaloo, Mississippi and met her longtime partner, Frances Clayton. His early poems were often romantic, but in the 1960s they became more politically focused due to the extent of civil unrest combined with confusion over his own sexuality. At the time many of his poems were written, more than a fifth of the nation was living below the poverty line, and the new television, which presented a highly stereotypical image of the happy American family, led to further oppression largest minority in America. (SparkNotes Publishers). In 1950s literature, there was a dominant notion of rebellion as authors such as Allan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac sought to reject "the uniform culture of the middle class and sought to overthrow the sexual and social conservatism of the era » (SparkNotes publishers). They led a group of nonconformists who, alongside many American students, joined protests against racial segregation, the death penalty, nuclear weapons, and other largely unquestioned issues of American life in the 1950s. I find her work extremely compelling and meaningful because of the ways in which she seeks to overcome notions of patriarchal power, as well as the systematic oppression and denial of human rights of minority groups such as blacks, feminists, women and lesbians. She uses both feminist and cultural theories in her work...... middle of paper ......dre-lorde>."Audre Lorde." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, nd Web. December 15, 2013. “Audre Lorde Quotes.” Happy reading. Np, and Web. December 14, 2013. .Bradley, Becky. “1950-1959.” American cultural history. Lone Star College - Kingwood Library, 1998. Web. February 7, 2011. Lorde, Audre. "Coal." Poems and poets. Poetry Foundation, nd Web. December 15, 2013. Lorde, Audre. “The Black Unicorn.” The Black Unicorn Poems by Audre Lorde. New York: WW Norton &, 1995. 3. Print.SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Social Trends of the 1950s.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Internet. December 14. 2013.