Tag: Black Women
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Keep this freedom gathering ‘
Memories of our gathering resurface every 2 years, around the 4th of July. You dressed in red, blue, white. We draped in orange wrappers and dark green blouses the color of evergreen leaves. Plus it’s as if we are both celebrating our independence, our freedom, only difference is that we free and you are not…
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Keep those who see the light and stars within!
Where do you begin a poem about women in light. At the same time how do you begin with those unafraid of the wind. Those that understand the essence of rain. Some women will make you grieve, others will help you release, yet some will remind you of how to reach the happiness within. Some…
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Keep this collective “we” if black, female and in academia!
These days I am seeing, not myself, not work, not my family, not my children and lord knows I love all four of them. I am seeing instead a collective we. With insights that help to re-vision a future we. When eyes finally see, it doesn’t float free pretending that “I” am alone in struggle.…
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Keep the lessons of cicadas!
We saw the limits of everything, for cicadas, saw them delicate like old skin, shedding their innermost being. They would give anything, it seems, as they suckle on the trunk of trees, to live. Now I see why rest, even if for 13 years, is the beginning of everything. I pray nothing, not even the…
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Keep Mother’s Day with those who paved the way!
I remember sometimes, the moment it began, on an avenue in Paris, rue Garibaldi, I believe, next to metro 6 line, a laboratory, all next to UNESCO, the place I once called work. The announcement was swift against a former life slowly dissolving. You are with child, in French, was all I heard, with new…
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Keep “this voice from I don’t know where” or felicity for 1000 blog notes!
If I was to listen to all the voices within from all the places that I don’t know where, if I were to share all the lessons keeping words have taught me, as I crossed the 1000 notes threshold yesterday, the word felicity would come to mind. Yes, because I just finished reading Mary Oliver’s…
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Keep embracing all of you!
I am the product of a complex system, but a producer of my own reality. For the past 4 years, I have used this space to tell my own story of this reality. Each time you see me, I promise, you will see something different, like a kaleidoscope. Take today, not only did I create…
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Keep knowing that you are stronger than you seem!
Things will fall into their place. One by one. We pull and uproot. Seed and plant. Then reassemble as we root out things out of place. So let it burrow deep. Let it remind you still. Of all the ways you are stronger than you seem. For you are stronger than you seem. No one…
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Keep being seen with your stories!
I have been thinking lately about seeing and being seen. Photos for example, are moments in time that enable us to see, the subject, their stance, their worldview, whether good or bad. All of it are captured in an image that enables the eyes to see. It’s an art form too that illustrates a certain…
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Keep being present!
There is this believe that all stories are true. Some have magic to their name and can do wonders to transport you from this realm to another. There are some stories portrayed as the best. We are assured in the praise songs that they are indeed the best. They can open up worlds from which…
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Keep these thoughts
Some people fear life. Others face it in a haste. Some struggle through all its phases. Others choose to fall like leaves. I don’t know how to forget. Not when my peace is involved. Forgive I can try. But to forget, no. I know that this phase will bring struggles. It’s a revolution after all.…
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Keep writing beyond yourself!
“You have an interesting take on things. You ought to write a book.” These words were once spoke to the late great Toni Cade Bambara, author of one of my favorite books including the one simply entitled “Black Woman.” She once shared how she had been writing stories long before she could spell. She never…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 