Audre Lorde,family Archives the American poet, civil rights activist, feminist, and professor, is honoured in today's Google Doodle.

The illustration of the self-described "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" was created by Los Angeles-based artist Monica Ahanonu.

The doodle features an excerpt from Lorde's 1982 speech "Learning from the 60s," delivered at Harvard University as part of a weekend-long celebration of civil rights activist Malcolm X.

Lorde was born in 1934 in New York City. Her parents were immigrants from the Caribbean, her father from Barbados, and her mother was Grenadian. Lorde spent her life and creative output fighting racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism.

A graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University, Lorde worked as a librarian during the '60s, and in 1968 she became writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College, Mississippi. Lorde was poet laureate of New York between 1991 and 1992.

Throughout Black History Month, which takes place annually in February in the U.S. and Canada, Google is paying tribute to Black artists via the YouTube homepage every Monday. From today, you can also customise your Chrome browser from a new collection of themes designed by Black artists.

Google has chosen Feb. 18 to honour Lorde because it would have been her 87th birthday. Lorde passed away from breast cancer in 1992 at the age of 58.