Literary Activism Quotes

“The rights and liberties represented by democracy, many agreed, were losing ground across the globe to restrictions imposed by authoritarian autocracy… It appeared ignorance had indeed managed to secure an alliance with power (to paraphrase James Baldwin’s famous quote) to become the most ferocious enemy of justice on the contemporary historical landscape.”
― Aberjhani, Songbirds and Roses: The Unusual Life Story of an Unusual Poem

“Of particular universal significance, is art’s ability to encase hope within contexts that cannot be murdered with bullets, killer drones, or unjust authoritarian decrees. While the blossoms of its extraordinary gifts may wilt in one challenging season, it is their nature to return more numerous and vibrant than ever before in another.”
― Aberjhani, Songbirds and Roses: The Unusual Life Story of an Unusual Poem

“It is relatively easy to point fingers at political figures whose leadership tactics resulted in diminished optimism and increased despair during a time when millions of souls were starving for the exact opposite. It is not so easy to ask how one may have contributed to the creation and maintenance of the culture of disregard and discord which helped spawn the tragedy in the first place.”
― Aberjhani, Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind : Adventures & Misadventures in Literary Savannah