October 31, 2026

Dare To Be Powerful

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.

Lorde first spoke these words in 1977 at a Modern Language Association panel, not long after her own breast cancer diagnosis forced her to reckon with mortality and silence. As a Black lesbian feminist poet, she had spent years weighing the cost of speaking her truth against the safety of staying quiet. Facing the possibility of death taught her that silence had never actually protected her, only postponed the reckoning. The line speaks to integrity because it redefines courage as acting in line with one's vision, fear present or not.