I wish to raise a Black man who will recognize that the legitimate objects of his hostility are not women, but the particulars of a structure that programs him to fear and despise women as well as his own Black self.
AUDRE LORDEI wish to raise a Black man who will recognize that the legitimate objects of his hostility are not women, but the particulars of a structure that programs him to fear and despise women as well as his own Black self.
AUDRE LORDEWe do not have to romanticize our past in order to be aware of how it seeds our present.
AUDRE LORDEOppression is as American as apple pie.
AUDRE LORDEIf I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That’s the beginning of social protest.
AUDRE LORDEIt’s a struggle but that’s why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color will not have to invent themselves, or their history, all over again.
AUDRE LORDEI have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.
AUDRE LORDESome women wait for themselves around the next corner and call the empty spot peace but the opposite of living is only not living and the stars do not care
AUDRE LORDEWe must constantly encourage ourselves and each other to attempt the heretical actions that our dreams imply and so many of our old ideas disparage.
AUDRE LORDEHow hard it is to sleep in the middle of life.
AUDRE LORDEYour silence will not protect you.
AUDRE LORDEIt does not pay to cherish symbols when the substance lies so close at hand.
AUDRE LORDEIf I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.
AUDRE LORDEI have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk throught the rain.
AUDRE LORDEI am still learning – how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed.
AUDRE LORDEFor women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.
AUDRE LORDEThe Seventh Sense – Women who build nations learn to love men who build nations learn to love children building sand castles by the rising sea.
AUDRE LORDE