Cover art by: Wagenchi Mutu

Audre Lorde Workshop:

Sister Outsider ( Full version here) 

“ Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbian and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future” 

The Cancer Journals ( Full version here) 

“ My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt i had ever made to speak those truths for which i am still seeking, I has made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences” 

If you had infinite energy, how would you alter the present and construct the future? 

Energy

By MJ

if i had infinite energy, i would stand before the whole wide world, 

Bare and breathing and tell my story 

I would tell it without armour 

With vulnerability soft as an open palm, 

With accountability that does not flinch

With integrity that tells the truth, even with my voice trembles

I would speak not to be seen, 

But so someone listening in the quite dark 

Might be less alone

So that somewhere, 

A heart on the edge of giving up might whisper back to itself 

“Yes” 

I want to live on more minute

Why does silence not protect us? 

Silence

by MJ

Silence does not protect us 

It only teaches pain to hide

It locks our truth behind our ribs 

And calls it survival

Safety

But silence never stopped the hurt, 

It only let it grow roots. 

Our voices are not the danger - 

Being unheard is.

<3 <3 <3