Firdaws

“Being careful with my words and measuring my tone, speaking at all, is harder.”
― Zalika Reid-Benta, Frying Plantain

“The Black child must learn early to allow laughter to fill his mouth or the million small cruelties he encounters will congeal and clog his throat.”
― Maya Angelou, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

“She had to know what I’d only just now discovered: that peace could only exist in this family when we lied about everything, at least to each other.”
― Zalika Reid-Benta, Frying Plantain

“As a kid I’d made the mistake of offering up overly complicated explanations, thinking that the more detailed I was, the more her doubt would ebb. Those explanations usually ended up revealing some kind of secret I wasn’t even aware I was keeping from her. Now I knew to say as little as possible.”
― Zalika Reid-Benta, Frying Plantain