“My look, mind you, is not chocolate like Lauryn Hill, Whoopi Goldberg, or Naomi Campbell - it is pitch black and shimmering like the purple outer space of the universe. I am the charcoal that creates diamonds. I am the blackest black woman (41).”

“Lord, I never seen blue hair on a black woman before or since. Leroy say you look like a cracker from outer space.”

“I am a black woman poet and I sound like one.”

“I, however, like black. It is a color that makes me comfortable and the color with which I have the most experience. In the darkest darkness, all is black. In the deepest hole, all is black. In the terror of my Addicted mind, all is black. In the empty periods of my lost memory, all is black. I like black, goddammit, and I am going to give it its due.”

“Black is my Power! I am Gold for Purple. Gold of my Wisdom as well as my wealth! Purple is my dignity. The wisdom of my wealth is the dignity of my authority as I authorize my influence-ability. Progress I make as the Sage of the stage andages with the Sagacity of Sage. My perfection I excel, the stage of perfection I rule as I write the script of success. The finest architecture is still in the mind, put your design in black and white.”

“I wear this because it suits me, it’s a part of who I am, of what I am. My soul is black, my life is black—as black as the nothingness that surrounds me.”