Joy ✨

“At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.”
― Percival Everett, James

“Race determined when we could speak, what we could say, where we could live, how we were educated—race was the burden every Negro bore, and that verity left us with a double consciousness that we had to chart through every minute of each day.”
― Victoria Christopher Murray, Cantos Para os Meus Netos: Poemas de Victor Hugo

“This is the gift of Harlem—the dress, the music, the language. It isn’t possible to live here and not begin to breathe and bleed this place.”
― Victoria Christopher Murray, Harlem Rhapsody

“Stand. Stand to your feet. We rise. That’s what we do. No matter the pressure or circumstance, don’t matter how high the tide of our troubles get, we rise above it. That’s resilience. You may not believe that you are like me in any other way but that. Because you’re still here. And I’m still here with you. So stand up.”
― Cebo Campbell, Sky Full of Elephants