Lessons in Resilience from from Writer & Activist Audre Lorde
Let the words of one of the god mother’s of Black feminist thought give you momentum and peace on your career journey.
written by Shani Syphrett-Haynes, Jamila Studio founder
I am not entirely sure how I found writer, womanist, librarian, activist, and soul-sage, Audre Lorde. But I know for sure that her words have been instrumental in my personal growth. Sometimes I think she’s speaking directly to me, like a Down South auntie who loves you deeply and will tell it all the way like it is just because she wants you to do well. She pushes me in my search for myself.
I also found positive psychology as I was trying to “get it together”. It is the science of happiness and it has a core belief that we can focus on what’s right within us and build from there. That felt revelatory to me when I was most confused about my life, my purpose, and what happiness actually looked like for me. I do believe that we all have the potential for greatness. And I believe that potential is somewhere within us already. If I can stay in my science bag, our potential is energy that can’t be created or destroyed. It just needs to be unlocked or transformed.
When I am looking for a catalyst, Audre’s words consistently transform me.
In their most actionable state, I find her words among affirmations on bedroom-strewn post-its or in the margins of one of my many notebooks full of “ideas”. They hit me and shift me to take risks, be more resilient, and remain in service of myself and my greatest cause — holding space for women of color to free themselves from the restraints that keep them from their highest potential.
Here are a few of my favorites that speak to building and keeping a spirit of resilience. They are presented in no particular order and without commentary — but I’m always willing to discuss Audre in community with folks over wine. Take what you need from them and spit out the bones. Let them serve you for as long as you need them to. Let them meet you where you are right now in your journey. And if they push you towards your own purposeful growth and free you to be more of your dope self, remember that Audre sent you and Shani reminded you that “you got this”.
Queen Audre says:
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.”
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do.”
“Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it.”
“Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle where we are standing.”
“Without community, there is no liberation.”
“I am my best work — a series of road maps, reports, recipes, doodles, and prayers from the front lines.”
“Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.”
“We must recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.”
“If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they probably will not survive.”
“You cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.”
A Special Offer for You
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A Special Offer for You 〰️
Coach with Jamila Studio
Hey, it’s Shani and I coach creative women of color to recognize and believe in their fire while providing them with the tools to build a pleasurable, purposeful, and prosperous creative career on their terms.
Those big dreams of yours? You got this, sis. I’m here to help.