"I have come to believe over and over again, that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.
That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect...
What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?
Perhaps for some of you here today, I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am woman, because I am Black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself – a Black-woman-warrior-poet, doing my work – come to ask you, are you doing yours?”
From a speech from Audre Lorde, a self-proclaimed “Black-lesbian-feminist-socialist-mother-writer-speaker-poet-educator-activist” who died of cancer in 1992. From her speech entitled The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.
“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes”
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