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I have spent my life undoing language until it works for me. We must not only repossess the language, we must deslaveryize it.

— Ntozake Shange Interview with Mother Jones (1995)

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More quotes by Ntozake Shange

We must not let our oppression deny us the earth.

Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems (2017)

Hopefully, these characters bring us closer to a sense of self: honest and honored. Icons: Toussaint L'Ouverture to José Martí to lesser known heroes, Atahualpa and Denmark Vesey. We lace our visions with Celia Cruz and Aretha Franklin.

Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems (2017)

No. I’m not trying to go away from anybody. I don’t go where my feelings get hurt. If you’re going to be nice to me, I’ll come.

Interview with Mother Jones (1995)

Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ntozake Shange (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.