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The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.

Audre Lorde

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Audre Lorde
Age: 58 †
Born: 1934
Born: February 18
Died: 1992
Died: November 17
Essayist
Feminist
Librarian
Novelist
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Audre Geraldine Lorde
Father
Therefore
Dream
Poet
Feel
Dreams
Feels
Told
Think
Within
Thinking
Free
Whispers
White
Goddess
Black
Fathers

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Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.
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Raising Black children — female and male — in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon is perilous and chancy. If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they will probably not survive. And in order to survive they must let go. This is what mothers teach — love, survival — that is, self-definition and letting go.
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There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
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Out of my flesh that hungers and my mouth that knows comes the shape I am seeking for reason.
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In discussions around the hiring and firing of Black faculty at universities, the charge is frequently heard that Black women are more easily hired than are Black men.
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Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.
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The absence of any consideration of lesbian consciousness or the consciousness of third world women leaves a serious gap within this conference. . . .
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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.
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Black women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.
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One pays a lot, we all pay a lot, for awareness.
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Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak.
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I learned so much from listening to people. And all I knew was, the only thing I had was honesty and openness.
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We must wake up knowing we have work to do and go to bed knowing we've done it.
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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.
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I am on the cusp of change and the curve is shifting fast.
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When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.
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As we come to know, accept, and explore our feelings, they will become sanctuaries and fortresses and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas-the house of difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action.
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Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge. They are chaotic, sometimes painful, sometimes contradictory, but they come from deep within us. And we must key into those feelings... This is how new visions begin.
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What I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?
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The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.
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