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In the cause of silence, each of us draws the face of her own fear—fear of contempt, of censure, or some judgment, or recognition, of challenge or annihilation. But most of all, I think, we fear the visibility without which we cannot truly live…

And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.

Excerpted from “The Transformation of Silence into Action,” a speech by Audre Lorde originally delivered at the Lesbian and Literature panel of the Modern Language Association’s December 28, 1977 meeting. Republished by Crossing Press in 1984 in her book Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.

—By Audre Lorde