birthday poem

for oj

juiced black dress
was all the rage

at the nightclub,
where my loved

ones drank
and danced

and not a single
one of us

managed
to brandish

anything
but teeth.

kara walker

my super awesome someone copped me this kara walker book for my birthday, and its fantastic. she uses civil war era inspired parody drawings and paintings to give a critical reading of race, sexuality, violence and representation. and she is quite attractive. a little understated. fresh. looks a lil like erykah. just saying.

the essence of it

this past weekend i went to a conference in bethesda, md that brought folks from all fields together to engage with one another about how to get behind the cycle (of incarceration) and other wonderfully progressive things. on the first night, susan taylor spoke, mainly about the mentoring program she founded to address the crisis of de block yoot. (there was no way to write that phrase without using jamaican patois). its an awesome program and its even more awesome that susan taylor is still so actively engaged in important work post essence.

but! dwarfing that awesomeness is this awesome fact:

susan taylor is 62 and looks like she's maybe 45.

its important for you to feel me on this one. what susan taylor's existence ultimately does is reinforce the "amazing black woman" truism. this is distinct from the myth of the "black superwoman," so scratch that one.

but its true: smart, beautiful, generous, straight up visionary black women abound! they're fresh and alive and enduring!