#giovanareadshere

💕 @julianna.nhh

Today, February 18th, two of the most renowned Black Women authors and Black feminists were born, Tori Morrison and Audre Lorde. We thank you for all of your works, wisdom, and honor you among the ancestors. 👏🏾✊🏾🫶🏾 We celebrate you both today and everyday.

The Queen of Speculative fiction.

The Mother of Afrofuturism.

The Visionary who changed the game for Black women in sci-fi forever.

Today we celebrate her brilliance, her imagination, and her power.

“Science fiction frees you to go anyplace and examine anything.”

“Every story I write adds to me a little, changes me a little, forces me to reexamine an attitude or belief, causes me to research and learn, helps me to understand people and grow”

“The lovely thing about writing is, well, two things. One, writing fiction allows us to bring an order to our lives that doesn't exist in real life. And two, it allows us to create human characters that we know better than we will ever know anyone in real life.”

Ms. Butler didn’t just write stories; she built futures, she cracked open possibilities, she dared to ask: What if?

Her work still shakes the table to this day.

Without her, would we have masterpieces from Ryan Coogler or Jordan Peele? 🤔🤔

We are because she was.

Her legacy is eternal. 🌌🖤

Source: Ashuka

Happy heavenly birthday, Ms. Butler. 💖👑

A Litany for Survival #42

BY AUDRE LORDE

For those of us who live at the shoreline

standing upon the constant edges of decision

crucial and alone

for those of us who cannot indulge

the passing dreams of choice

who love in doorways coming and going

in the hours between dawns

looking inward and outward

at once before and after

seeking a now that can breed

futures

like bread in our children’s mouths

so their dreams will not reflect

the death of ours;

For those of us

who were imprinted with fear

like a faint line in the center of our foreheads

learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk

for by this weapon

this illusion of some safety to be found

the heavy-footed hoped to silence us

For all of us

this instant and this triumph

We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid

it might not remain

when the sun sets we are afraid

it might not rise in the morning

when our stomachs are full we are afraid

of indigestion

when our stomachs are empty we are afraid

we may never eat again

when we are loved we are afraid

love will vanish

when we are alone we are afraid

love will never return

and when we speak we are afraid

our words will not be heard

nor welcomed

but when we are silent

we are still afraid

So it is better to speak

remembering

we were never meant to survive.