When I Dare To Be Powerful -

Poetry Is The Way We Help Give Name To The Nameless So It Can Be Thought.

I Have A Duty To Speak The Truth As I See It And Share Not Just My Triumphs, Not Just The Things That Felt Good, But The Pain, The Intense, Often Unmitigated Pain. It Is Important To Share How I Know Survival Is Survival And Not Just A Walk Throught The Rain.

For Within Livin Structures Defined By Profit, By Linear Power, By Institutional Dehumanization, Our Feelings Were Not Meant To Survive. Kept Around As Unavoidable Adjuncts Or Pleasant Pastimes, Our Feelings Were Expected To Kneel To Thought As Women Were Expected To Kneel To Men. But Women Have Survived. As Poets.

We Must Recognize And Nurture The Creative Parts Of Each Other Without Always Understanding What Will Be Created.

We Have To Consciously Study How To Be Tender With Each Other Until It Becomes A Habit Because What Was Native Has Been Stolen From Us, The Love Of Black Women For Each Other.