And will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed!
We cannot settle for the pretenses of connection, or for the parodies of self-love.
African tradition deals with life as an experience to be lived. In many respects, it is much like the Eastern philosophies in that we see ourselves as a part of a life force; we are joined, for instance, to the air, to the earth. We are part of the whole-life process. We live in accordance with, in a kind of correspondence with the rest of the world as a whole. And therefore living becomes an experience, rather than a problem, no matter how bad or how painful it may be.
Oppression is as American as apple pie.
I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect. . . . what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?. . . Death on the other hand, is the final silence. . . my silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.
. . . my experience with people who tried to label me was that they usually did it to either dismiss me or use me.
. . . and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.
The artist. . . is the voice of the people.
Let's call something a rigid designator if in every possible world it designates the same object, a non-rigid or accidental designator if that is not the case. Of course we don't require that the objects exist in all possible worlds. . . . When we think of a property as essential to an object we usually mean that it is true of that object in any case where it would have existed. A rigid designator of a necessary existent can be called strongly rigid.
I was a keen sportsman, and became school captain in soccer and cricket.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings. . . . And, while with lifting mind I've trod The high, untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.