“The God of Imagination lived in fairytales. And the best fairytales made you fall in love. It was while flicking through "Sleeping Beauty" that I met my first love, Ivar. He was a six-year-old bello ragazzo with blond hair and… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
Home is in my hair, my lips, my arms, my thighs, my feet and my hands. I am my own home. And when I wake up crying in the morning, thinking of how lonely I am, I pinch my skin, tug at my hair, remind myself that I am alive. Remind myself to step outside and greet the morning. Remind… — Diriye Osman Copy Share
In those sticky summer nights in South London our windows stay open and our tiny apartment becomes our secret garden. The magic of the secret garden is that it exists in our imagination. There are no limits, no borderlines. The secret garden leads to the marigolds of Mogadishu and the magnolias of Kingston and when the heat turns us sticky… — Diriye Osman Copy Share
“He carries home in the way he walks: an elegant, loose strut. He wears home on his skin in the form of attar, a… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
“Even Story Time was political. Miss Mumbi infused each fairytale with Kenyan flavour. She illustrated these remixes on the blackboard. 'Rapunzel' became 'Rehema,' a fly gabar imprisoned in Fort Jesus. Rehema had an Afro that grew and grew. Her Afro grew bigger than her body and she looked bomb. The Afro became so strong that it burst through the ceiling… — Diriye Osman Copy Share
“i have been told many times by family, friends, colleagues and strangers that I, a black African Muslim lesbian, am not included in this vision; that my dreams are a reflection of my upbringing in a decadent, amoral Western society that has corrupted who I really am. But who am I, really? Am I allowed to speak for myself or… — Diriye Osman Copy Share
If dislocation is a permanent state, I want to try and explore the possibility of temporary impermanence. If dislocation is a tatty dress from… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
“You may feel like your future is slipping from your grasp, that if you don’t rush now to greet your dreams you might lose… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
Daughter, I want you to form the most intense, loving relationship with yourself. Only then will you realize your capacity for kindness and emotional… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
“Every experience lately felt like an experiment of the body, of its power and limitations. Such experiments created a desire for something more fulfilling.… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
“I've always loved being gay. Sure, Kenya was not exactly Queer Nation but my sexuality gave me joy. I was young, not so dumb… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
“Who do I write for? I thought about this again and again over the next few days until the answer crystalized in my consciousness.… — Diriye Osman Copy Share Image
