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LaTasha Archie, performing at Rustbelt 2019 in St. Louis, MO.
About Button:
Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
00:06
This poem is to the white girl in my class
00:09
who asked about my shirt that stated “I met God and She’s Black”
00:15
of which she replied, “Girl, I was with you until the ‘was black’ part.”
00:20
Or to the Black boy in Nick’s Pub
00:22
who told me to “shut that ‘white woman feminist’ shit up,
00:26
I’m going to call you female anyway.”
00:28
So I got a question.
00:30
Ain’t I a woman?
00:31
Ain’t I got Sojourner Truth trying to trample past my taste buds
00:35
with the Beckys’ poems pressed against my lips,
00:37
trying to silence the rumble?
00:39
Ain’t I a contradiction?
00:40
Too Black to be feminist.
00:42
Too concerned with women’s marches to be bothered with the brown bodies
00:45
lying in the police barricades.
00:47
Beautiful bricks that always seem to resemble my future children.
00:51
So ain’t I a vacancy?
00:52
So used to seeing brown bodies stunted, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like
00:56
to watch them grow.
00:57
Got me praying for infertile soil because I fear a bullet picked a flower
01:02
before it could fully bloom.
01:04
Find me standing on frontline, screaming for the causes
01:07
that they will silence me in.
01:09
Place my body on the foundation of movements
01:12
to have everyone tread on my back.
01:14
Grind my bones down to dust,
01:17
only to see my memory blown away with a whisper.
01:19
So ain’t I an ancestor?
01:21
Don’t I keep the Good Book stitched to my ribcage?
01:24
Keep my freedom papers tucked behind my social security card,
01:28
a Negro spiritual swelling in my throat,
01:30
shooting shotguns to part the Red Sea
01:33
as if they were my people’s blood,
01:34
proudly leading the celebration when we make it to the other side,
01:38
only to have white women grab my hands and say they carried me over.
01:42
So ain’t I a convenience?
01:44
Have them try on my culture like costume.
01:47
Box my braids in the realm of unprofessional,
01:49
yet gentrify my genes for sport.
01:51
More interested in the glory of the hood than having to live with the rats.
01:55
Don’t I got hands stretched, fingertips flexed,
01:59
heading towards my new growth,
02:00
but surprised when met with hands slaps
02:03
’cause it ain’t your business how they feel.
02:05
So ain’t I about to catch a case, but ain’t she still my “sister,”
02:09
still feel their hands unjustifiably searching the science of my body,
02:13
trying to discover the immortal in everything they thought I lacked,
02:17
find the taste in everything they assume be bland,
02:20
cradling my ancestors, raping the density of my melanin.
02:24
So ain’t I brown paper bag test,
02:25
light enough to bear your children but not fair or male enough
02:29
to spark your revolutions.
02:30
So ain’t I Henrietta?
02:32
Ain’t I Sandra and Corinne,
02:33
Phoenix and Monica,
02:35
that nappy-headed ho over there,
02:36
birther of caskets, mother of civilization,
02:39
the beginning and the end,
02:41
the power to stare stone-faced at them all and say,
02:44
“Ain’t God woman and Black,
02:46
so I feel honored for the chance to bask in her presence.”
02:50
(cheers and applause)
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
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