Whenever a conscious Black woman raises her voice on issues central to her existence, somebody is going to call her strident, because they don't want to hear about it, nor us. I refuse to be silenced and I refuse to be trivialized, even if I do not say what I have to say perfectly.

The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.

...and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.

Every Black woman in America lives her life somewhere along a wide curve of ancient and unexpressed angers.

Some 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.

Change is the immediate responsibility of each of us, wherever and however we are standing, in whatever arena we choose.

There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.