Aubrie Johnson

“Hey you, dragging the halo-
how about a holiday in the islands of grief?

Tongue is the word I wish to have with you.
Your eyes are so blue they leak.”
― Jeffrey McDaniel

“Empowerment looks like cultivating the wisdom to make the best choices we can out of what are customarily a piss-poor set of options. Power looks like the ability to create better options. The powerlessness and capriciousness of being repeatedly jammed up at the personal and political crossroads of one's intersection while a watching world pretends not to see there, needing help, is how it feels to be a Black woman on an ordinary day.”
― Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

“How does trust build between people? It is an offering and a receiving. It is putting yourself into the position to be hurt, just a little, and noticing that they refrain. It is the reaching out between people, laughing at the same moment. It is building a model of the other person inside yourself, placing them in the palm of your hand, rotating them and saying: Yes. I see the flaws and I see the dangers and nothing will happen here that will truly harm me. And it is saying: I would rather trust you than be alone.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Future

“Empowerment looks like cultivating the wisdom to make the best choices we can out of what are customarily a piss-poor set of options. Power looks like the ability to create better options. The powerlessness and capriciousness of being repeatedly jammed up at the personal and political crossroads of one's intersection while a watching world pretends not to see you there, needing help, is how it feels to be a Black woman on an ordinary day.”
― Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower