"Shatter her beauteous breast ye may; The Spirit of England none can slay! Dash the bomb on the dome of Paul's, — Deem ye the fame of the Admiral falls? Pry the stone from the chancel floor, — Dream ye that Shakespeare shall live no more? Where is the giant shot that kills Wordsworth walking the old green hills? Trample the red rose on the ground, — Keats is Beauty while earth spins round! Bind her, grind her, burn her with fire, Cast her ashes into the sea, — She shall escape, she shall aspire, She shall arise to make men free: She shall arise in a sacred scorn, Lighting the lives that are yet unborn; Spirit supernal, splendor eternal, !"

"After the shower, the tranquil sun; After the snow, the emerald leaves; Silver stars when the day is done; After the harvest, golden grain."

"Brave the storm with firm endevor, Let your vain repinings go! Hopeful hearts will find forever— Roses underneath the snow."

"October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came— The Ashes, Oaks and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing; Professor Wind, the band"

"O, Genevieve, sweet Genevieve, The days may bring me joy or woe, But still the hands of Memory weave The blissful dreams of long ago, Sweet Genevieve!"

"For the dear old Flag I die, Mother, dry your weeping eye; For the honor of our land And the dear old Flag I die."

"Come, little leaves," said the wind one day,— "Come o'er the meadows with me, and play; Put on your dresses of red and gold: Summer is gone, and the days grow cold."

"To do Thy holy will; To bear Thy cross; To trust Thy mercy still, In pain or loss; Poor gifts are these to bring, Dear Lord, to Thee, Who hast done everything For me!"

"Happiness and joy don’t sell as well as suffering and crawling our ways up seemingly insurmountable hills. No, people are incredibly entertained by Black women’s suffering to the point of wishing ill upon us to see what the output will be"

"I noticed that students are more receptive to videos than they are to assigned readings and things like that. And so I’m trying to negotiate, ‘How do we make that happen?’ How do I let them know that this is still an ongoing thing: That 100 years ago, we were still talking about issues of racial discrimination, sexist discrimination. That this is not a new thing? … So, trying to bridge those gaps is a little bit difficult. And I think that there is a lot of apathy"

"The mutual benefit would be, 'Wow, now both black and white people won't be suspected of shoplifting"

"We are challenging that system and so we have to conspire. We have to plot and plan the ways in which we can tear those systems down"

"What our ancestors and elders have been trying to do is make things better for each generation. But we equate better with proximity to whiteness and we have to stop doing that… Sometimes the consequence is a separation from cultural traditions and affinity… But cultural memory is strong. Even when you are displaced or removed or separated from each other, that memory is there"

"But when Black women sing, we seem to be given permission to perform pain for others to consume. People demand that Black women singers emote suffering and go so far as to call it their “best” music"

"The last thing I'm interested in is someone who is slapping a label on themselve as a way to be recognized as a good person"

"We are all the same people. Understand that the boat just went to different places. We originated in the same spots. We are all the same"

"I read “The Education of The Negro Prior To 1861” and I understood what Carter G. Woodson was talking about. The pain that I felt that it took me becoming an adult to first learn these things was traumatizing to me. And all I could think to myself was, ‘What about everyone else? They’re not studying themselves. What will they become?’ And that’s where we get stuck in a lot of things"

"I, as an older person need to be like, ‘All right, I’ll work with you on this.’ I’ve tried to pass this torch, you know, and be supportive, but we can’t just point fingers at them and be like, ‘Oh, they’re lazy. They don’t want to do anything"

"So any opportunity I have to be a part of a forum (to) engage people to celebrate and to amplify diverse voices and to hold on — in the face of all these attacks on (diversity, equity and inclusion), things like that — to the very simple idea that diversity makes us better, that’s always a good thing"

"I have been really focused on this idea that I’m coming from a line of people who started this work, and I have to continue"

"There’s a privilege to being able to go to school and see someone standing at the front that looks like you. It’s not until you get the teacher who looks like you, who’s teaching a class on African American studies. That changed my life. I said, ‘What is this? I did not know any of this!’ It was the first time that I felt like I was learning something about where I came from that was not revolving around being subservient to someone else or less than someone else"

"No one wants to hear that we might be in a psychological state that weakens us or renders us unable to serve them; we must be strong at all times and no one wants to hear otherwise"

"I’m really glad to be a part of that because I think that I represent so many — I hate to say it — marginalized identities: I am African American. I am a woman. I am a queer person. I am disabled. I’ve got a lot of these things going on that inform my daily life"

"The people who tend to call themselves allies are usually the people with privilege, who will not have a mutual benefit from whatever they're trying to help with"

"Well, white people already had that. So, what do they gain out of this? Black people are free to shop. But what do the white people get [that they didn't already have]"

"This really makes sense because what we're doing is conspiring to shut down entire systems of oppression"

"Number the riches by thy memory hoarded, Relics of joys thy by-past years have known, — How many real things has life afforded? How much true light was o'er thy pathway thrown?"

"Peace, sweet Peace, is always found In her eternal home on holy ground."

"— The grave's dark portal Soon shuts this world of shadows from our view, Then shall we grasp realities immortal, If to the truth within us we are true."

"The gathered rose, and the stolen heart, Can charm but for a day."

"Sorrow treads heavily, and leaves behind A deep impression e’en when she departs; While joy trips by, with steps light as the wind, And scarcely leaves a trace upon our hearts Of the faint footfalls, only this is sure — In this world nought, save suffering can endure."

"Weep not for those Who sink within the arms of death Ere yet the chilling wintry breath Of sorrow o'er them blows; But weep for them who here remain, The mournful heritors of pain, Condemn'd to see each bright joy fade, And mark grief's melancholy shade Flung o'er Hope's fairest rose."

"There dwelleth in the sinlessness of youth A sweet rebuke that vice may not endure."

"Like the sweet melody which faintly lingers Upon the wind-harp's strings at close of day, When gently touch'd by evening's dewy fingers It breathes a low and melancholy lay; So the calm voice of sympathy meseemeth; And while its magic spell is round me cast, My spirit in its cloistered silence dreameth, And vaguely blends the future with the past."

"When the glad sun, exulting in his might, Comes from the dusky-curtain'd tents of night."

"Oh never yet did Peace her chaplet twine, To lay upon base Mammon’s sordid shrine, Where Earth’s most precious things are bought and sold; Thrown on that pile, the "pearl of price" would be Despised, because unfit for merchantry."

"The charm of eloquence, — the skill To wake each secret string, And from the bosom's chords at will Life's mournful music bring, — The o'ermastering strength of mind, which sway The haughty and the free, Whose might earth's mightiest one obeys, These, — these were given to thee."

"Like lamps in Eastern sepulchres, Amid my heart’s deep gloom, Affection sheds its holiest light Upon my husband’s tomb. And, as those lamps, if brought once more To upper air grow dim, So my soul’s love is cold and dead, Unless it glow for him."

"All paths lead to you Where e'er I stray, You are the evening star At the end of day. All paths lead to you Hill-top or low, You are the white birch In the sun's glow. All paths lead to you Where e'er I roam. You are the lark-song Calling me home!"

"There is a little place in me That cries like any child, To be as forest things are, free, Lonely, and strange and wild!"

"I shall go smiling Into the great beyond, Looking upon the silence as release, Looking upon the darkness as a dream, Looking upon the deep unknown as rest."

"You, Beloved, are the silvery lake shimmering in the desert of my youth."

"She stands, a guardian of the endless sea, Her garb is golden, and her lips are flame, She is the portal of Eternity And Beauty is the realm from whence she came! She is the voice of many bleeding lands— America, she calls! To Arms! Arise! For like a shimmering sabre in the skies In scarlet glow she stands A guardian of the earth and sea— Liberty!"

"Bring me a pale flower-boy, White-limbed like a young heifer in a field, His lips a-quiver with unknown desire.... His soft throat virgin beneath my kiss, His bosom like a bower of stars."

"Bring me a languid woman, perfumed, young, Her dusky body hung with dazzling gems And strange, exotic iridescent stuffs — Her wanton eyes like thirsty summer moons."

"but don’t get uptight : the guns will not win this one, they are an incidental part of the action which we better damn well be good at, what will win is mantras, the sustenance we give each other, the energy we plug into"

"avoid the folk who find Bonnie and Clyde too violent"

"NO ONE WAY WORKS, it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down."

"get up, put on your shoes, get started, someone will finish"

"I have just realized that the stakes are myself I have no other"