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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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Morgan Parker
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: January 1
Much
Within
Made
American
Way
Free
Like
Black
Diametrically
World
Feelings
Opposed
Keep
Systems
Women
Came
Live
Feeling

More quotes by 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 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'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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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 think that we need to make it our goal to define freedom for ourselves.
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 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 don't claim to say, All black women are like me, because they're not.
Morgan Parker
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In grad school, a friend and I gave ourselves the task of writing poems in the voice of Beyoncé and Lady Gaga after they did the collaboration for Telephone. I just kind of kept going. That was quite a while ago - Beyoncé meant something very different then than she does now.
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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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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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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There's something about us using the word fascism and thinking about, What is it? What does it mean, and what are the tenets of it?.
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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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?.
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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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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Mickalene [Thomas] is an artist that I have admired for a long time. So much of her work inspires me - I spend time looking at her work when I'm writing. I feel like we're working toward the same themes, and I see our work in conversation, whether we know it or not.
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