I learned so much from listening to people. And all I knew was, the only thing I had was honesty and openness.

For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.

To face the realities of our lives is not a reason for despair-despair is a tool of your enemies. Facing the realities of our lives gives us motivation for action. For you are not powerless... You know why the hard questions must be asked. It is not altruism, it is self-preservation-survival.

Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.

The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

I am a Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Poet Mother, stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.