Until Then, Joi-Marie

a writer in a [poetic] frame of mind

[dcfab]

We’re going to center women because we can and we want to.

Ava DuVernay

[dcfab]

One of the most infuriating things about writing is how it puts you in a room with nothing but your own judgment to keep you company while you struggle to pull together a first draft.

Zan Romanoff

[dcfab]

People have to start respecting the vagina. Until every man is fighting for our rights, we should consider stopping having sex. I love men. But evil men? I will not tolerate that.

Janelle Monae via Marie Claire

[dcfab]

RuPaul’s sense of power has come from the fact that he has been able to choose for himself.

RuPaul via Vulture

[dcfab]

It is thrilling to think-to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame.

Zora Neal Hurston

[dcfab]

Africa was the shadow that both framed and stalked the existence of every African-American.

Henry Louis Gates

[dcfab]

In truth, I just didn’t want to seem difficult, because difficult for an actress, for any woman, is an incurable leprosy that haunts you to the grave.

Zosia Mamet

[dcfab]

Anticipating the super stardom and dreaming about those things were sometimes better than having them.

Erykah Badu on releasing her debut album in 1997

[kushandwizdom]

Me flirting: Your aura is pretty.

(via kushandwizdom)

[dcfab]

My identity is political because so much of who I am is part of the public discourse, subject to legislation, subject to discrimination and disadvantage.

Roxane Gay

[dcfab]

I have long believed that to write as a woman and to write as a black woman is political and that words are my sanctuary and more than ever, I need refuge.

Roxane Gay 

[dcfab]

Greatness is the product of years of striving.

Ayana Mathis

[dcfab]

This is the meaning of art, after all, to touch us deeply in secret places, places that the world and sometimes we don’t even know exists—to tell one story that is every story, and most importantly to make us question the universe overall, and our universes in particular.

Josie Pikens

[dcfab]

If you write for critics then you aren't a writer.

Helena Andrews via NBC Washington

[dcfab]

A woman’s name should only appear in print three times in her life, at birth, at marriage, and at death.

Vogue’s Book of Etiquette circa 1948

[dcfab]

You strike a woman, you strike a rock.

African Proverb via Trevor Noah

[dcfab]

This suffocating state of being pressed deeper into the Earth upon trying to rise has always been the default setting for Black women.

Neyat Yohannes