Michael Tubbs Quotes

I should have known that something really great was coming up, because there’s a pattern to these things. Before every great victory, there had to be a great attack or fight. It is always the darkest before dawn. Weeping may endure for a night, but a joy comes in the morning. You will reap a harvest if you faint not.

Tubbs’ essay exemplifies what The Color Purple is about: the belief that each of us has an indomitable spirit within us that we can trust to carry us through perils even more terrifying than the systems of domination—whether by race, gender, class or other—set in place to keep us down. That we own our own souls and are therefore offered the freedom to choose dignity and self-respect, which, happily chosen, gives us the courage to live our own lives. And, what is more, to cherish and enjoy them!

He who wants to bring about change must first be changed by those he wants to help,” read the door of Beth Uriel, which means “House of Light” in Hebrew.

All my life I had to fight!

They were a reminder that there is a future that has not yet succumbed to cynicism. Joy. Hope against all hope. Child’s play. It’s the only way to survive a chaotic, beleaguered world, I thought. The way to battle injustice. The way to not lose your mind. The way to please God, even, because how better to demonstrate faith than to be a child at play in the middle of a war?

Our testimonies are sources of pride and reservoirs of strength. Storytelling—truth-telling—is how we make sense of the world as it is and gain the vision and courage to create the world as it should be.

In that vein, I see my calling not as a political one, but as a narrative one. I am more a griot than a politician and, to quote my favorite rapper, J. Cole: “My story ain’t the only story I’m trying to tell.

Grace is both necessary and sufficient to power us through hard times, I would learn. Grace and the love of fierce women were the nutrients I needed to grow in the soil I was planted in: Stockton, California.