"I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they may sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain." - James A. Baldwin

"Hope is when you look out the window and you go, 'It doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond what I see to give people visions of what could be.'"- Anna Deavere Smith

"I paint my own reality." - Frida Kahlo

"Have the courage to be happy!" - Augusto Boal

"You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and never get wet." - The Phantom Tollbooth

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." -Buddha

"Repression forces your mind to be more deeply entrenched in those things from which you are trying to escape." - Vimala McClure.

"The truth is, you and I are the stuff that great leaders are made of. We don't have to wait for a distinguished man on a horse or a politician wealthy enough to win office in a multimillion dollar campaign to usher in justice and equality. The ranks of rebellions and revolutions that have shaped human history have been made up of people like you and me. (…) The people who make a difference are those who fight for freedom – not because they're guaranteed to succeed – but because it's the right thing to do. And that's the kind of fighters that history demands today. Not those who worship the accomplished fact. Not those who can only believe in what is visible today. But instead, people of conscience who dedicate their lives to what needs to be won and what can be won." -Leslie Feinberg

"The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give." -Oprah

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.Your playing small does not serve the world.There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.We are all meant to shine.We were born to make manifest the glory that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Mariane Williamson

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at." -Maya Angelou

"You can go a month without food, you can live three days without water, but you can't go more then sixty seconds without HOPE." -Sean Swarner

"If you really want to help the American theater, don't be an actress, dahling. Be an audience."- Talullah Bankhead


"The worst stab wound is the one to the heart. Sure, most people survive it, but the heart is never quite the same. There's always a scar, which is meant, I guess, to remind you that even for a little while, someone made your heart beat faster. And that's a scar you can live with, proudly, all the days of your life". -Oz

Ashley is an activist and artist dedicated to creating theatre that challenges the status quo. She is a Co-founder/Artistic director of Co-Op Theatre East, Artistic Director of Project Girl Performance Collective, alumna of the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics - EMERGENYC and American Theatre Wing's - SpringboardNYC. Ashley is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She holds her M.A. in Performance Studies (NYU Tisch) and BA in theatre directing and sociology/anthropology from Pace University. Find out more: www.ashley-marinaccio.com