Out Of My Flesh That

Sometimes We Are Blessed With Being Able To Choose The Time, And The Arena, And The Manner Of Our Revolution, But More Usually We Must Do Battle Where We Are Standing.

... Poetry Is Not A Luxury. It Is A Vital Necessity Of Our Existence. It Forms The Quality Of The Light Within Which We Predicate Our Hopes And Dreams Toward Survival And Change, First Made Into Language, Then Into Idea, Then Into More Tangible Action. Poetry Is The Way We Help Give Name To The Nameless So It Can Be Thought. The Farthest Horizons Of Our Hopes And Fears Are Cobbled By Our Poems, Carved From The Rock Experiences Of Our Daily Lives.

In Discussions Around The Hiring And Firing Of Black Faculty At Universities, The Charge Is Frequently Heard That Black Women Are More Easily Hired Than Are Black Men.

It Is Axiomatic That If We Do Not Define Ourselves For Ourselves, We Will Be Defined By Others-for Their Use And To Our Detriment.

It Is Never Easy To Demand The Most From Ourselves, From Our Lives, From Our Work. To Encourage Excellence Is To Go Beyond The Encouraged Mediocrity Of Our Society Is To Encourage Excellence. But Giving In To The Fear Of Feeling And Working To Capacity Is A Luxury Only The Unintentional Can Afford, And The Unintentional Are Those Who Do Not Wish To Guide Their Own Destinies.