I Am Not Broken, I Am Free – Pariah

The movie Pariah, now out on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes, is a coming of age story about a Brooklyn teenager, Alike (ah-lee-kay), struggling with her sexual identity. I don’t want to diminish the movie’s story line in anyway by being so brief in my description; no, but I would like to share a piece from the movie. The following poem is written (in the film) by Alike once she finds her voice and embraces her identity as a lesbian. It is quite powerful and simply beautiful.

 

Heartbreak opens onto the sunrise

For even breaking is opening

And I am broken

I’m open

Broken to the new light without pushing in

Open to the possibilities within, pushing out

See the love shine in through my cracks?

See the light shine out through me?

I  am broken

I am open

I am broken open

See the love light shining through me

Shining through my cracks

Through the gaps

My spirit takes journey

My spirit takes flight

Could not have risen otherwise

And I am not running

I’m choosing

Running is not a choice from the breaking

Breaking is freeing

Broken is freedom

I am not broken

I’m free.

                                 ~ Spoken by Alike (Adepero Oduye)

                                     Written by Dee Rees

I love this pic of Adepero Oduye, she has beautiful bone structure.

Baby, you’re already in a cage

“You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing, and you’re terrified somebody’s going to stick you in a cage. Well, baby, you’re already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it’s not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somaliland. It’s wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.”

One of my favorite quotes from the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” spoken by the character Paul Varjak