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.