A Black Herstory Slam Redux
This past February, the Women’s Resources Center at the University of Illinois sponsored Black Herstory Slam, an open mic devoted to poetry, spoken word, and performance that highlights Black women’s history and black feminist thought. Held at the University of Illinois Women’s Resources Center, Writ n’ Rhymed is described as “a transformative poetic space created at the University of Illinois. It is a space for art, poetry, spoken word, music, movement, prose, rhyme, performance, and critical engagement.” The Black Herstory Slam brought together over 150 attendees, featured performances from twelve talented poets, and was co-hosted by Jameelah McCrigg and Dominique Coker.
The following represent selected works performed during this year’s Black Herstory Slam, published here with permission from the poets in honor of Women’s History Month:
BLACK GIRL BLUES
By Kerry Wilson
My hair is long but it’s nappy
I never match my socks
My hands stay out my pockets everywhere except the bookstore
So you can accuse me of stealing this knowledge
The figment of my imagination is a stigmatism that I use to justify those overpriced glasses I get from LensCrafters…
Or is grad school just effing with my vision?
I act like your BS is a non-factor
But it keeps me up at night
When my diction contradicts your fiction of my black girl truths
My tongue bleeds from holding back my black girl blues
I’ve cracked cell phone screens and shattered my momma’s champagne glasses
I’ve broken hearts by taking the wrong chances
My actions divide like fractions
Tell the story like close captions
“Eff what ya heard” is my usual reaction
I want to be free to do what I choose
Cause I get so tired of this black girl blues
If I’m being realistic, I look in the mirror and I still see a statistic
The stigma of teenage motherhood is so fatalistic that there isn’t a damn thing I can do to get away from it
I woke up like this
A dark-skinned, thick-chick who refuses to measure her worth in sex, drugs, and rock and roll
And on judgement day I’ll end up bargaining for my soul
This I know for true
I’ll live and I’ll die singing this black girl blues
CRESCENDO (CHOPPED & SCREWED)
by Kerry Wilson
My swagger cut you like daggers until it don’t
2pac foreshadowed his end but see I won’t
Instead I think I’ll heed the call
To quick fucking with those waterfalls
I’m looking for my crescendo
You know the “that’s my part” part of the song
When the notes get extra long
The oh God give me a reason,
Wanya throwing chairs and ish cuz we’ve come to End of the Road
My crescendo
The place of pure emotion, the place to let it go
Give me a crescendo
Like when he say “I effed up and I need you to stay with me”
Or when she say “yeah you effed up, I still love you but you gots to leave”
I need my break it down to the nitty, gritty
No Bad Boy Remix, and No P. Diddy
You think you know, but do you really
These pinned up emotions inside could actually kill me
But it’s time to let it go…
Like parachute pants and the humpty dance
It was fun while it lasted
I can’t live my live all chopped and screwed
Just cuz I like it when the beat gets spastic
These plastic emotions cause oceans of pain
There’s absolutely nothing to gain
From putting out the fire with acid rain
Instead give me a crescendo
And I need it…
I need it like I need
Hip-hop before the bling
Michael Jordan before the ring
Lauryn Hill before that thing
Chews me up and swallows me whole
Find my crescendo
Save another black woman’s soul
I REFUSE TO BE SILENCED
by Anne Namatsi Lutomia
I refuse to be silenced
I will speak so that I and others can be heard
You do not want me to speak
You say I am too noisy, uncontrollable and bad mannered
You call me a lesbian, a man hater, a witch, a mad woman
You call me a slut, uncircumcised, barren, childless, foolish, ugly, a prostitute
You slap me so as to discipline me
You tell me that I have a long mouth
You tell me to shut up
You not only want to silence me
You silence others like me
You instill fear in us
You want us to keep quiet
You say no one will believe me if I speak
You want me to say nothing
I who you have raped, molested, battered, butchered, undressed, beaten, slapped, abused and shamed
I who is gazed at, shunned, goaded, stared at, and whispered about
You coin stereotypes about me that silence me as you all laugh at me
Forcing me to laugh with you as I hurt
I am your sister, mother, friend, lover, niece, grandmother, daughter, and wife
You want me to be quiet because you are powerful, famous, privileged and respected
You want me to dust myself and move on
Today I choose to speak
I want the world to hear and listen to my pain
I speak because together we can stop this hurt
I refuse to be silenced
Kerry Wilson is a doctoral student in the Institute for Communications Research in the College of Media and Anne Namatsi Lutomia is a doctoral student in Human Resource Education in the College of Education. The Black Herstory Slam was co-sponsored by the Women’s Resources Center, the Bruce D. Nesbitt African-American Cultural Center, W.O.R.D. and Black Students for Revolution (BSFR) in honor of Black History Month.