Actor and filmmaker Numa Perrier will produce and star in a movie based on the life of pioneering lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde, Deadline reports.
Perrier will produce the film alongside her sister, Livia Perrier. The two are known for producing Jezebel, the critically acclaimed film that won rave reviews when it premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in 2019.
Lorde, considered one of the most influential 20th-century figures in Black, feminist, and queer literature, first gained widespread literary fame in 1976 with the publication of the poetry collection Coal. In 1980, she published The Cancer Journals, which was reissued last year by Penguin; the same year, W.W. Norton published an anthology of her work edited by Roxane Gay, The Selected Works of Audre Lorde, which a critic for Kirkus called “essential.”
“Audre Lorde lived fully, loved fiercely and used her words as both weapon and salve,” Numa Perrier said. “The stories of our poets are necessary as their work continues to give shape and make sense of the world.…I believe creating a film is one of the most impactful ways to use our voices.”
The biopic will be an independent production. Numa Perrier explained that decision on Instagram, writing, “patiently steadily creating the work that matters most to me. developing this independently for sometime now because we can’t wait for anyone’s permission slips.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
