“a song flung up to heaven”: a poem for Maya Angelou
Today is Maya Angelou’s birthday. Continue reading “a song flung up to heaven”: a poem for Maya Angelou
Tag: drknbryant
shet the hell up!: on the media being itself
I’ve been steady pondering, damn near fuming about, media’s use of the terms “protest,” “terrorist,” “patriot,” “American,” “citizen,” & “democracy” & how carelessly mainstream reporters have exclaimed, emphatically so, their bewilderment, their upset, their absolute fear re: those white folks’—their kinfolks’—uprising, which too many of them keep calling a protest (& sloppily comparing to Black Lives Matter movements). Continue reading shet the hell up!: on the media being itself
Nobody but you, Lord (& Alice Walker & Kanye West)
We are in a pandemic. I am in a pandemic. I am in a global pandemic. I am in a global pandemic w/7.5 billion other human beings–& w/the exception of the Black & Brown people who are at higher rates of contracting, being hospitalized by, & dying from COVID-19, this corona virus gives zero fvks about race, class, gender, age, ableism, political affiliation, you fill-in-the-blank. … Continue reading Nobody but you, Lord (& Alice Walker & Kanye West)
my first response to Biden & Harris’ appointments
Note: The below work is excerpted from an epistolary essay I wrote for the Race, Equity, & Education course I am taking with Dr. Kathy Hytten of University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG). It includes references to Eddie Glaude‘s Democracy in Black and Joel Olson‘s The Abolition of White Democracy–which I suggest everyone read, especially during this tumultuous, yet promising, political time. 7 November 2020, 1230p … Continue reading my first response to Biden & Harris’ appointments
“What a friend we have in Jesus” (& Nikki): A musing response to Nikki Giovanni’s “A Good Cry”
I turned myself into myself and wasjesusmen intone my loving nameAll praises All praisesI am the one who would save —Nikki Giovanni, “Ego Tripping (There May Be a Reason Why)” Jesus wept. (John 11:35) I find Jesus and Nikki to be quite similar, maybe even one and the same. Admittedly, however, I don’t know either that well. But I think I know enuf about them to make such … Continue reading “What a friend we have in Jesus” (& Nikki): A musing response to Nikki Giovanni’s “A Good Cry”
in Defense of Andrew Gillum: Come on Black People
I am 41. I am unwed, & the older I get, the more I am opposed to what appears—in its traditional sense—to be a narrowed, confining arrangement wherein too many folks are lonely, depressed, & unfulfilled; too many married people are unhappy people. Aaaaaaaand, considering America’s marriage is born from a white racist imperialist supremacist capitalist patriarchy—that just opened itself to LGBTQ+ persons—I’m str8 on … Continue reading in Defense of Andrew Gillum: Come on Black People
We, the (Black) People: Contemplating America’s Democracy amid Two+ Pandemics
Since middle school, I was a “revolutionary with no cause,” said my daddy—who apparently was amused by (or weary of) my dashiki wearing, Black nationalist poetry writing, presiding member of the Afro-American Heritage Club and NAACP Youth Council daughter of his who participated in Black History Brain Bowls, Theodore Gibson Oratorical Contests, and high school step shows. I was a “revolutionary with no cause,” he … Continue reading We, the (Black) People: Contemplating America’s Democracy amid Two+ Pandemics
I’m sick an’ tired (of white folks)
I know I’m not the only one carrying absolute exhaustion toward all of white America for their overwhelming performance re: this year’s Black Lives Matter Movement. I’m so tired of receiving emails from corporate America’s CEOs claiming to support the Black Lives Matter Movement–to being culturally sensitive & aware & intolerant of the racism (& classism & sexism & homophobia) that have been cornerstones maintaining … Continue reading I’m sick an’ tired (of white folks)
My Daddy, My Mammy: A Black Man Doing Black Feminism
Hands down: James Weldon Johnson’s “The Creation,” his 1927 poetic retelling of the Biblical Genesis story, is one of the best renditions of the Creation story ever written (& performed by Black children in somebody’s Black History program). His entire piece is imaginatively breath-taking. However, what I find to be the most beautiful stanza in Johnson’s narrative poem is his second to last, in which … Continue reading My Daddy, My Mammy: A Black Man Doing Black Feminism
“A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet”: Unearthing Grandma’s Black Feminism
I was an 18-year-old fresh(wo)man at Florida A&M University when Grandma Rose died. Cancer. I don’t remember if I had yet told my family I was lesbian—altho I had been planning my comingout story since I left my parents’ home. I planned to tell them I am “pansexual”—a term I read w/which Alice Walker identified over 20 years before Janelle Monáe popularized the word. Being … Continue reading “A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet”: Unearthing Grandma’s Black Feminism
