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There was something about Beyoncé that felt like a vessel, I guess, that I could kind of impose all of these feelings and thoughts onto. I was drawn to a little bit of a dichotomy between the glamour and celebrity and the very deep and complex legacy of black women, and what that means in terms of performance.

Morgan Parker

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Morgan Parker
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: January 1
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Black
Performances
Vessel
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Celebrity
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Onto
Women
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Legacy
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Deep
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More quotes by Morgan Parker

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I also think that [political turmoil] gives artists something, a way of kind of processing.
Morgan Parker
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I think sometimes the stars align whether we want them to or not. And we're drawn to certain people and places for no other reason than...Destiny.
Morgan Parker
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Sometimes I feel as though I'm trying to take a hit for the team so that other people then can move forward. I'm like, Look, I just laid out all of my stuff, so what's the worst that can happen?.
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Hard times are really a fire under your ass to prioritize and think, Okay, how can I challenge myself to put something in the world that wasn't there that can reach other folks and help them to process?
Morgan Parker
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Sometimes it's just rejecting stereotypes, sometimes it's creating work. Sometimes it's just blocking out the noise.
Morgan Parker
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It's hard for black women to ask for help. We think we don't need it. We're used to being in pain and living with it.
Morgan Parker
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I don't think that there are as many black women or women of color becoming psychiatrists, so we can't find them and then we feel looked at and studied and that's part of what is damaging to us. It's hard to find therapy that is actually a tool for your own liberation. I think we can be really distrustful.
Morgan Parker
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I think there's something that's fascist [in Donald Trump's election], and something that I think we could probably learn from, in terms of the energy in the world right now.
Morgan Parker
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I've been thinking a lot about folks denying what has happened in history, or just not acknowledging it.
Morgan Parker
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There's so much about the strong black woman stereotype that makes us forget that we do need and deserve help and care.
Morgan Parker
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I'm working on a young adult novel. I've been working on it for a while, because I don't know how to write a novel and I'm teaching myself. For that reason, I've been reading a lot of YA [young adults], which I never have before. It's totally new to me.
Morgan Parker
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So much of the world and the systems that we live within are made to keep us from feeling like we're free. The way that black women in American came to be is just diametrically opposed to being free.
Morgan Parker
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It's been interesting to look back on those works [I've done previously] and see all the things that Beyoncé has done and become for us in the meantime, because back then, folks were like, Why Beyoncé? I don't get why she is kind of the symbol for black womanhood.
Morgan Parker
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The book [There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé?] is quite complex, and I was worried that it would be marketed as one-sided or flat, and I knew that Mickalene's [Tomas] work would be able to encompass all the many states of being that are in the book.
Morgan Parker
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I spent a lot of time trying to layer upon layer upon layer as I wrote. I think that's often the fear of a writer, that little nuances won't get picked up.
Morgan Parker
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I struggle with depression and anxiety, and I have since I was a teenager. I spent a good chunk of time being very ashamed of that. Now I feel committed to talking about it and trying to normalize it as much as I can.
Morgan Parker
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I liked the idea of using this mega-star [Beyoncé ] to talk about all those things on the tiny scale of my life.
Morgan Parker
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I wanted [the book 'There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé?'] to be colorful. I wanted it to be evocative. I wanted a figure of a black woman that the reader has to confront.
Morgan Parker
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I guess the only thing I'd say is it ['There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé?'] shouldn't be read as Beyoncé is not beautiful.
Morgan Parker
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I think that we need to make it our goal to define freedom for ourselves.
Morgan Parker