Yesterday was the first day of Brilliance Remastered‘s Summer Webinar Series Maroon Studies!!!
Yesterday (oh glorious freedom-redefining day) the participants in Intensive #1: Debt and Black Unbelievability focused on what is at stake in our relationships to blackness write large as the stars and our blackness in particular. We engaged work on blackness by the geniuses Evie Shockley and Jamaica Kincaid.
We worked through contradiction and expansiveness, we got personal and theoretical and poetic (at the same time) and we created three poems as part of our process of articulating and refracting our thoughts, feelings, impulses and tensions. Here are our poems!
you are
by the participants in Maroon Studies Intensive #1 (Debt and Black UnBelievability)
(an ode to our blackness-inspired by Evie Shockley)
you are my joy in the morning
and my comfort in the evening
you are my open sky on a hard day
and the hard day
you are my hope in times of struggle
and the struggle
you are my tunnel for freedom
and the freedom
you are my bridge over the abyss
and the abyss
you are my heartbeat my hips
and my bliss
you are my scorching sun
and my shade
you are my lie
and my truth
you are my mother
and my child
you are my connection to my ancestors
and my ancestors
you are my dead and lost
and my finding awake
you are my sleep without dreams
and the dreams
******************************************************
some folks
by the participants in Maroon Studies Intensive #1
(a poem about our blackness—after Evie Shockley)
some would say you’re a death sentence
some folks can’t see the way you bring me life
some would say we are behind
some folks can’t see we are on a different plane
some would say you’re illegal
some folks can’t see justice
some would say you are skin and hair
some folks don’t know you are thick in the air
some would say you’re ugly
some folks can’t see the swing in your hips
some would say you are the opposite of light
some folks can’t manage a darkness this bright
some would say this is all
some folks can’t see all is all we need
Blue Blackness
by the participants in Maroon Studies Intensive #1
(after Jamaica Kincaid’s “Blackness”)
blackness
the blackness is not water or food
the blackness is not water or food
it enters the room and sets the mood
no other sound except the blackness falling can be heard
no other sound except the blackness falling can be heard
black is the letter the syllable the whole word
the blackness cannot bring me joy, but I am often glad in it
the blackness cannot bring me joy, but I am often glad in it
the blackness cannot bring me joy, but I celebrate being made from it
i am swallowed up in the blackness so I am one with it
i am swallowed up in the blackness so I am one with it
i am swallowed up in the blackness so that I can create from it
though it flows through my veins
though it flows through my veins
blackness is love, making me strange
within the blackness then, I have been erased
within the blackness then, I have been erased
through the absence I live in space
she
she sits idly on a shore staring hard at the sea
she sits idly on a shore staring hard at the sea
she sees my nightmares, my memories, my ancestors and me
she sits idly on a shore staring hard at the sea
she sits idly on a shore staring hard at the sea
she sits idly on a shore waiting for Yemaya to appear on waves tumults and beauty
she hears the sounds within the sounds common as that is to open spaces
she hears the sounds within the sounds common as that is to open spaces
wondering and dreaming about simultaneous places
she hears the sounds within the sounds
she hears the sounds within the sounds
she hugs the heart of the heart deeper within unbound
so enamored is she of great beauty and ancestral history
so enamored is she of great beauty and ancestral history
that she forgets her name and sets it free
as she stands boldly now one foot in the dark the other in the light
as she stands boldly now one foot in the dark the other in the light
as she stands boldly now ready to transform into a being made of stars and moonlight
*************
And that’s just day 1!!!
If you want to sign up for July’s intensive “Necessary as Water” you can get more information here.
Black blessings,
Sista Docta Lex