“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?”
Invitation: “What do you need to say?”
From - Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (linked)
More about Sister Outsider and Audre Lorde from Wikipedia and Kindred Psychology
“The paradoxical title of Sister Outsider expresses Lorde's commitment to her identity and the multiplicities gathering together to assemble her unique identity – multiplicities that often placed her "on the line", in a space that refused safety of an inside parameter, demonstrating Lorde's ability to embrace difficulty in the path to create change.[5][6] Lorde informs readers through these essays that the histories of westernized culture have conditioned inhabitants to view "human differences in simplistic opposition to each other" – good/bad, superior/inferior – and to always be suspicious of the latter. Instead, Lorde suggests, use differences as a catalyst for change.[7] Throughout the collection, Lorde also emphasizes the use of poetry as a profound form of knowledge, a powerful tool for diagnosing and challenging power relations within a racist, patriarchal society.”
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, April 7th at 8:00 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
We will continue our daily Shared Solitude: Embracing the gift of silence in community offered by our Courageous friend Emily - Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 am ET and Tuesday, Thursday at 3:00 pm ET through April 18th. See details on our Calendar HERE
Learn More About Circles of Courageous Commons HERE
For those who don't have the ability or safety or privilege to say something, something they need to say, I need to say what they need to say.
Audre Lorde blazed trails for herself and for generations after her. Her declarations and question invite my heart and conscience: "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?” In this chapter of my life, in this tumultuous era, I will continue to discern what my work is and strive to do it wholeheartedly. Audre Lorde's fierce example and the inspiration of her life and poetry call me forward.