Monthly Archives: February 2017
rad poets society
We cannot create what we can’t imagine. — Lucille Clifton
There is no straight road, no straight road in this world, only a giant labyrinth of intersecting crossroads. — Federico Garcia Lorca
Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard. — Anne Sexton
Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts…then listen close to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be. — Shel Silverstein
I will not take “but” for an answer. — Langston Hughes
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking. –A.A. Milne
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. — Audre Lorde
Genius is the recovery of childhood at will. — Arthur Rimbaud
At the innermost core of all loneliness is the deep and powerful yearning for union with one’s lost self. — Brendan Behan
We can’t change the world until we change ourselves. — Biggie Smalls
For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I don’t hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people — and they’re helpless with it. –Mos Def (aka Yasmin Bey)
Don’t talk unless you can improve the silence. — Jorge Luis Borges
Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act. — Leonard Cohen
How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me? — Leonard Cohen
We have never arrived. We are in a constant state of becoming. — Bob Dylan
Life always offers a second chance. It’s called tomorrow. — Dylan Thomas
Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. — Gertrude Stein
There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. — Leonard Cohen
Love is the only engine of survival. — Leonard Cohen
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. –Anais Nin
I made no resolutions for the new year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. — Anais Nin
If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s not to be so judgmental of other people. — Patti Smith
Years of love have been forgot in the hatred of a minute. — Edgar Allen Poe
When we are committed to doing the work of love, we listen even when it hurts. — bell hooks
A person isn’t who they are during the last conversation you had with them. They’re who they’ve been throughout your whole relationship. — Rainer Maria Rilke
It’s harder to make the glass than break the glass. — RZA
Be curious, not judgmental. — Walt Whitman
Gonna get through this world the best I can. — Woody Guthrie
Viva la Resolution!
Join us, won’t you? Details at http://www.nypeace.org/viva. Have some fun whilst supporting peace in NYC and beyond.
the wordy dozen.
The best way to solve problems and fight against war is through dialogue. –Malala Yousafzai
There’s no story if there isn’t some conflict. — Wes Anderson
If you want to make peace with your enemy you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. — Nelson Mandela
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. — Baruch Spinoza
Be good. To yourself, to other people, to everything you do. It’s a norm of life by which people should try to live. Don’t waste time. Be interesting and interested. — Mikhail Baryshnikov
I don’t know what life was like 1,000 years ago, but I imagine there was the same struggle: people trying to connect with each other. — Spike Jonze
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. — Jimi Hendrix
I’m only alive out of curiosity I’m curious where we’re all marching. — John Hurt, RIP
Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart. — Anne Frank
Gentleness clears the soul. Love cleans the mind. And makes it free — Davide Bowie
The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. — Piet Mondrian (Also true for mediators!)
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing. –Marc Chagall
in living black and white.
Here are black and white (and less migraine-inducing) versions of some of my recent drawings.
honoring Black History Month.
Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. — Jimi Hendrix
If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try talking to them in real life. — Barack Obama
You have to listen with a heart. I don’t want to sound touchy-feely — it is not. It is very hard work. — Anna Deavere Smith
If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you are consistent, you will succeed. — John Lewis
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize accept and celebrate those differences. — Audre Lorde
Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. — August Wilson
Nonviolence is pretty ballsy, pretty advanced weaponry. — Ava DuVernay
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. — Frederick Douglass
Every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage everyone to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might become liberator for ourselves and for each other. — LaVerne Cox
We’re stuck in fear and in not wanting to cross that most important bridge of understanding that we’re more alike than not. — Stevie Wonder
The mind and the voice by themselves are not sufficient. — Mahalia Jackson
Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple — that’s creativity. — Charles Mingus
It takes more than one of us to bring about peace. It takes all of us. — Rosa Parks
Human existence exists on multiple level, not just on a two-dimensional lefel, not just being identified with what you do and say. — Ornette Coleman
I don’t hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people — and they’re helpless with it. — Mos Def/Yasiin Bey
When we are committed to doing the work of love, we listen even when it hurts. — bell hooks
When in doubt, zoom out. — Reggie Watts
The greatest gift is not being afraid to question. — Ruby Dee
Be grateful for the luck, pay the thunder no mind — listen to the birds. And don’t hate nobody. — Eubie Blake
Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation. — Gwen Ifill
A musician’s whole life is to listen. — Wynton Marsalis
Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth. — Shirley Chisholm
It’s harder to make the glass than break the glass. –RZA
You are none of the superficial things that the world deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the universe. — RuPaul
Kindness eases change. Love quiets fear. — Octavia Butler
There is nothing better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. — Malcolm X
I don’t let my mouth say nothing that my head can’t stand. — Louis Armstrong
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team. But one man cannot make a team. — Kareem Adbul Jabbar
Keep in mind always the present you are constructing. It should be the future you want. — Alice Walker
When there’s no mutual respect, there’s trouble. — Dizzy Gillespie
You’re not teaching anyone unless you’re learning yourself. — Hilton Als
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once the hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with real pain. — James Baldwin
There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we’re here to explore new possibilities. — Ray Charles
I have always been a learner because I knew nothing. — Sidney Poitier
Judgement of the people in the situation is not helpful. How you can help them is the question. — Russell Simmons
Hate is too great a burden to bear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.