When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.

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.

The strongest lesson I can teach my son is the same lesson I teach my daughter: how to be who he wishes to be for himself.

The fear that we cannot grow beyond whatever distortions we may find within ourselves keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, externally defined, and leads us to accept many facets of our own oppression as women.

If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive

We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.

to that piece in each of us that refuses to be silent.