Amelia Zurcher

“Since no African slaves were brought to the Americas, but only Africans who were enslaved, it is safe to assume that among the arrivals in the 1620s were the usual human variety of personalities with an equally impressive number of character traits. Out of the cauldron that was developing under the hegemony of Europeans emerged several recognized types: the recorder of events, the interpreter of events, the creator of events, the advancer of events, the maintainer of events, and the memorializer of events.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

“Teju Cole writes, “There are no refugees, only fellow citizens whose rights we have failed to acknowledge.”
― Claudia Rankine, Just Us: An American Conversation

“in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe