if they put an iron circle around your neck I will bite it away

Womanists is what black feminists used to call themselves. Very much so. They were not the same thing. And also the relationship with men. Historically, black women have always sheltered their men because they were out there, and they were the ones that were most likely to be killed.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.

I think one of the reasons I'm so thrilled with writing is because it is an act of reading for me at the same time, which is why my revisions are so sustained.

Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to.