As a Black lesbian feminist comfortable with the many different ingredients of my identity, and a woman committed to racial and sexual freedom from oppression, I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self. But this is a destructive and fragmenting way to live.

In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.

I stand here as a black lesbian feminist, having been invited to comment within the only panel at this conference where the input of black feminists and lesbians is represented. What this says about the vision of this conference is sad, in a country where racism, sexism and homophobia are inseparable. . . .

I am my best work - a series of road maps, reports, recipes, doodles, and prayers from the front lines.

Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.

Those of us forged in the crucibles of difference know that survival is not an academic skill.

We are powerful because we have survived