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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.

— Ntozake Shange Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems (2017)

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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)

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

Interview with Mother Jones (1995)

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.