In 1984, Audre Lorde found out that her breast cancer had metastatized to her liver. She refused to get a biopsy and surgery, preferring, instead, homeopathic medicine. In 1988, she published portions of the diary she kept during her first three years with metastatic breast cancer as part of a collection of essays entitled A Burst of Light. She died in 1992. To celebrate Audre Lorde’s 87th birthday, on 18 February, we tweeted excerpts from A Burst of Light concerning her lived experience with and politics about metastatic breast cancer.
