Electric Blog

Gathering Sounds of Freedom: A Young Black Feminist finding A Seat at the Table

Reflections: Coming of Age as Black, Southern, and Femme:

I am Black first.

And then, I am a woman.

I’ve lived by this.

Until I could no longer.

I am neither one

before the other.

Rather, I am both simultaneously.

Compounding.

Conflicting.


My blackness,

My femme-ness,

Cannot be

| u n t h e t h e r e d. |

“What does a Poor,

Black, Alabama girl

Need with Feminism?”

I answer:

Everything.

For it is a | gospel | a language | a politic | a performance

#ForBlackFemmeFreedom.

Amazing grace,

how free the sound,

that saved a femme

like me.

“Black Feminism has saved my life” (Alexis Pauline Gumbs)

 And mine.

It is the language

that helps me describe

how #SayHerName

became

#SayHis

It is the politic

that helps me explain

why men made me feel

Owned.

As though

I am not My Own

to claim—

made me feel tamed,

when my wildness is not theirs

to tame.

It is the performance

that gifts me the confidence to conceive

of my body

—beyond—

limitations placed upon me.

Black Feminism elucidates why

in adolescence,

I knew I did not

desire motherhood and why,

as an adult,

my lovers

turn my refusal to mother

into a determination of my value.

[As if my pussy is only made to birth babies and secure husbands.]


So, what is Black Feminism to a Poor, Black, Alabama girl like me?

I answer:

Everything.

For it is | a gift | a demand | a gospel |

#ForBlackFemmeFreedom.

Black Feminism gifts

femmes a lexicon of freedom and

a permission to imagine otherwise.

It demands

a world where femmes are free

to define themselves,

to explore the capacities of their being,

to discover and enjoy pleasure.

Black Feminism is a gospel,

Twas bind,

but now

I demand

to be Free.

Freedom cusps the horizon

in a Black feminist

Dream, and

a Black feminist

Ethic,

breathes life into a world

where Black femmes are

valued and protected.


How Does the Call for Freedom Sound?

For the young Black Feminist coming of age, a long line of women await you. For you, I have gathered some sounds of Black Femme Freedom so that the next time the call for freedom beckons, you will know, you will join in, and, like me, you can occupy your seat at the table.

Electric Marronage