I have a vocabulary in clothing. It's like a whole language.
Interpretation
Clothing can express one's identity and emotions, serving as a form of communication.
Tracee Ellis Ross highlights how clothing transcends mere function and serves as a way to express individuality and creativity. Just as language conveys ideas and feelings, fashion tells a story about who we are, allowing us to communicate without words through our choices in style and attire.
In practice
In a fashion seminar focused on personal branding.
We as black people are not a monolithic bunch. We are not all the same, and neither are women. Instead, we are all individuals who have these extraordinary stories to tell and share with each other that will enrich all of our lives and help us all become more ourselves and better people.
I used to watch my mom put her makeup on for the stage, and it was one of the most special moments. I would sit quietly on the dressing room floor and watch her put her face on. I think she looks most beautiful in the morning when she wakes up with no makeup on... it's my favorite look on women.
I've never felt like I was in my mother's shadow. If anything, I felt like I was in her embrace.
I grew up on the ragged edge of self-acceptance, where I was holding on to it, but it was easy to fall off. But as I found my way inside myself, I've been able to accept my own hair, my own shape.
I've heard people say, 'Why do you have to do a show that's called 'Black Girls Rock'?' or 'Why is there an expression called 'black girl magic'?' You know, when you say, 'Save the dolphins,' you don't mean, 'I don't like whales.' That's just not the way it works!
Share shame so you are not left alone with it. If you can't find another person, get a journal. I didn't say make a video on Snapchat. It's for you, not anyone else.
The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.
That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader.
A true diva is graceful, and talented, and strong, and fearless and brave and someone with humility.
When you make music, you're forming these invisible vibrations in the air into different shapes and consistencies and speeds in order to create music, and understanding how the math of that works just gives you more colors to paint with, and allows you to get to what you want quicker.
When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.
I can't be alone among fiction writers in regarding the world, so much weirder than anything we could make up, as beating us at our own game or in racking my brains over what could possibly constitute a contribution when novels pale before the newspaper.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.