Lesbians of Importance

“Writing A Lab of My Own... I started working on the book 10 years ago because no one had documented the feminist movement in science. Eventually I realized that if I was going to talk about my life, I had to really talk about it.”

“The House of Labeija has been a remarkable part of my life. It has allowed me to express myself through movement and connect with the brown and black queer community. I have been able to make my name through this iconic legacy house, and I have been able to do positive work by carrying this name. The personal rewards are simple. It may just be the ability to hear another person tell their story, and witness them come into their power. Thats what keeps me motivated to continue my activism.” 

“Art has many functions. It can illuminate relationship or a ‘politics’ if you like. It can provoke. It can provide comfort. It can anger us. It can deliver sheer beauty, perhaps even joy. It can remind us of our lived, live human experience and also the inverse of that, death. All of these things are valid, and they are humbling tasks for any work of art or artist.”

“...because we have so many data points, because we have so many scenarios and encounters, I think that gives us a lot of data to theorize what it means to be human. What matters to us. And I think that is something that is very, very special that a multiple marginalized identity gives you.” 

"The only way we can get anyplace is by being together....Gay people have to get in there just like anybody else. We have to work. We need more businesses. Scientists, chemists, things like that. If we could get more gay people in our politics, I think it would help a lot....And be honest and caring. Try to love people. Have a happy life if you can in this crazy world." 

“Many who have had an opportunity of knowing any more about mathematics confuse it with arithmetic, and consider it an arid science. In reality, however, it is a science which requires a great amount of imagination.”

“When I created a rhyme between dissimilar words, I was revealing something like that hidden essence. I was making it ring true. That's what rhyme usually feels to me, like the ringing of truth.” --On Being

“To paraphrase Jack Halberstam, the wound of being excluded from structures can be a gift. It pushes us to create. Cultural activism changes what we think is possible. This is why I co-founded Queer Rebels with KB Boyce -- to create community, art, and representation.” 

“I’m so interested in this idea of being seen and seeing yourself, and how that relationship is developed. We all want to be validated and recognized in some way. This also relates to the power of the gaze in my work. When I take a photograph, that gaze is forcing the viewer to see my subjects—to recognize them.” —BOMB, Artists in Conversation

“Given courage and ability and a favorable set of circumstances, there is no greater way to [acquire] influence than to be free of personal ambition.”

“We can’t ignore the fact that there’s classicism and racism within the broader LGBT movement, so once the powers-that-be and the folks who hold the purse strings can resolve their own crisis with HIV/AIDS, they’re not always concerned with the people who are left behind —just as we see in broader society of marginalized people left behind. They’re not doing enough, they’re not addressing the needs of black LGBT people in general, let alone those who have HIV/AIDS. But if we look at the demographic shift of America, we know that by 2042 to 2050, the minority faces are going to be the majority makeup of America. If we are not addressing the issues that impact people of color who are LGBT in the movement, then there’s not going to be a movement.” 

“The conference was designed to address the needs and concerns of black lesbians in New York and New Jersey. Just because you live in Manhattan doesn’t mean that your family, job, or religious community supports you. So many of us are just seeking to be accepted. As politics and pronouns evolve, we need spaces to discuss, reflect, and adjust without persecution.”

"We're not just writers who are hired to go into an office every day and write our stories," Bernard says. "We connect with readers on and off-site, and we have camp where we meet people and have cabins and build a family in real life. We—the writers, the team—need the readers as much as they need us."

“But really, the canon for me sometimes feels a little bit strange because where I come from, here on the reservation, in our community, you respect your elders and you know that all the things coming out of you have come through them to you. I’m grabbing onto them, and the energy is moving through me—these words came from somewhere else, somebody else, some other time. But it seems to me when people talk about the canon, that what they are often trying to talk about is assimilation. I really want to headbutt it...” 

“The way to keep people from dying from disease, it struck me suddenly, was to keep them from falling ill. Healthy people don’t die. It sounds like a completely witless remark, but at that time it was a startling idea. Preventative medicine had hardly been born yet and had no promotion in public health work.” — Fighting For Life

Says Walleska: “Why do I teach? The everyday ‘Aha!’ moment that creates knowledge and my commitment to Nelson Mandela’s affirmation that ‘education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’”

“The human imagination is about the coolest thing we have going for us.”