On Thursday, May 25, members of the Brooklyn Museum and guests filled the 3rd floor Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium anxious to hear wisdom from the acclaimed poet, novelist, activist, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Alice Walker.

“Revolution begins from within. Unless we change ourselves – there is no change. What can help you to be revolutionary, is to control your own mind. Try to change the world without doing this and you’ll get little traction. Take time and sit (meditate),” asserted Walker during her intimate talk at the museum.

Most famous for her 1982 award winning novel, The Color Purple, Walker participated as special guest in celebration of the Museum’s new exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85. Focusing on the work of black women artists, the exhibit examines the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic priorities of women of color during the emergence of second-wave feminism. It was Walker who said, “womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” She coined the term womanist in her 1983 book In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden: Womanist Prose.

#WeWantedARevolution, the exhibition, was organized by Senior Curator Catherine Morris, and Assistant Curator Rujeko Hockley. Morris and Hockley brought Walker on stage to a thunderous applause and standing ovation. Signers of American Sign Language made the program accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired.

Walker read from her recent work: “Nigger! You can’t run away from words that hurt, you must deal with them. Remember, you can be kept enslaved by names people call you.” The audience mesmerized, kept silent, except for finger snapping agreement, as she continued reading her piece “Nigger” In the Language of Love.

“For all those who remind us how this works.

Pretty soon we might all be niggers –
A just karma is beginning to
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snow down upon us.
Maybe you will be happier then:
to find you can indeed
live on your knees
and sometimes create a tune
or fashion a break dance
there…”

After a few readings, Morris and Hockley joined Walker back on stage for conversation. Throughout the night she stressed the importance of laying claim to who you are. Who are you? What are you here for? What is your truth? Toward the end of the program, the floor opened to questions. Walker profoundly said of the women featured in the exhibition, “they felt the call of the ancestors.”

To read more of Walker’s most recent works including the rest of “Nigger” In the Language of Love, check out her blog AliceWalkersGarden.com.