“I am Chief Perry of the Ramapough Lanapee Munsee Nation, the people of this land, the sweetwater clan of the people of the mountains. Florence’s eye is what I believe to be the new paradigm, in a world where we must walk in unity, light, and understanding. It is just astonishing that she is bringing the reality of that dream to so many of us.
For that, I want to say thank you. Wanishi anishi.”

“There is something radical about an encounter with a stranger. In the meeting between the eyes, all things external seem to fall away. Each person standing against the same blank canvas illuminates how, in the end, more connects us than divides us. This may be what keeps the fabric of America from being ripped apart.”

“When I was 18, I came out as queer.
My family had a real struggle with that because they had a really neoconservative ideology. At that point, I realised I could never return home. So I empowered myself to live my own authentic truth. Then I realized I had shifted them; I had shifted their ideologies with my presence, and that there was no more space for them to hold that in front of me. Because I was in front of them, and it was my being there. So I chose to start returning.”

“A radio voice crackling a sermon about the end of days keeps me company in the dark. On the side of the road, a discarded umbrella has been swindled out of its chance to serve during a rainstorm in Oklahoma, where people and trees alike bend in the wind ”

“My great uncle was born in 1922 on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. He was the first white child to be born on the reservation and helped keep New Mexico as New Mexico, and not give it to Mexico. I have Native American cousins because my family married into the tribe. People who come into the restaurant ask ‘You’re calling them cousins?’ Well, they are my cousins!”

“Any time I meet a new person, my priority is to learn about them and see how our worlds relate. I dream about a world where I can provide for all the people I love. Love is free, so it’s not limited to how much you can put into the world.”

“There are many different secrets and lessons hidden in every tree, every rock, and every leaf. They are our relatives who teach us things, just the way it used to be among the Native people.”