to that piece in each of us that refuses to be silent.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of embracing and expressing our inner truths, even in the face of adversity.
Audre Lorde's quote, 'to that piece in each of us that refuses to be silent,' highlights the inherent strength within individuals to speak out against injustice and societal expectations. It calls for acknowledging and nurturing the voice that stands up for one's beliefs and authentic self, encouraging individuals to resist conforming to silence and instead advocate for their rights and identities.
In practice
During a speech at a rally advocating for civil rights.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
This is what I tell, especially young women, fight the big fights. Don't fight the little fight... Be the first one in, be the last one out. Do your homework, choose your battles. Don't whine, and don't be the one who complains about everything. Fight the big fight.
Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.
Women have always been the strong ones of the world.
This is the first teaching of the Knights: You will erase everything you had written in the book of your life up until now: restlessness, uncertainty, lies. And in the place of all this you will write the word courage.
When something is new and hard and bright, there ought to be something a little better for it than just being safe, since the safe things are just the things that folks have been doing so long they have worn the edges off and there's nothing to the doing of them that leaves a man to say, That was not done before and it cannot be done again.
Faith ventures and hazards . . . counting the costs and delighting in the sacrifice.
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