The Art of the Writer
When do you feel the most free?
“When I am alone”
What do you do when you are alone
“Ya know, the usual… I read, maybe dance, I writ...:”
Oh so you’re one of those?
One of those artsy chics
those carefree shawtysse
The ones who listen to Frank Ocean
at 1 in the morning,
with the windows down
in the middle of December
Oh so you’re one of those boys,
using big words and all those adjectives,
just to tell people what’s on your mind
Describing the simplest of feelings
with words like crestfallen and melancholy...
Why can’t you just say “I’m sad”?
Oh so you’re one of those black creatives eh?
The ones who write about black lives
And what it’s like to be black in america blah blah
Confessing your love for Angela Davis through rhythmic flows and afros
stretching in all different directions
with your fist pointed to the heavens
Calling upon your brothas and sistas to
fight the power…or as some may say fuck the system?
One of those liberals?
Leaning so far towards the left
that whenever you hear that 11 letter word
your blood starts to boil as you search for the right rebuttal to put that,
pesky Repu…
Oh wait, wok wouldn't want to ruffle those feathers of yours, now would I
With words like imbecilic and odious
In all caps you emphasize your dislike of “the other side”
and the ridiculous opinions of ALL others who dare to disagree
Oh wait, what are your pronouns?
I would assume you support the LGBTQ+ movement
You do believe that love is love right?
Disapproving of the gender binary
and its pinks and blues
Promoting gender equality as your pen secretes
colorful ink in hues of oranges, greens, purples, and all the other colors
in the rainbow
Please tell me you are one of those feminist.
Equal rights for women...
Remove the glass ceiling...
Don’t tread on me!...
I’d assume you believe in that.
Maybe you're one of those freedom writers
Ya know, the ones who promote global peace
Expressing the need for change
in today’s inadequate society
You brew up quiet storms a flick of your pen
Like one of those Long Beach students from Woodrow Wilson High
Writing under the instruction of Ms. Gruwell
To make the city a better place for you and for me?
Is that you
Which one of these people are you
Tell me which category do you fall in?
I must know
For they tell you:
“You can have one but not both.”
Check one box below
“But I do not fit in one box.”
I am a creative
A carefree black girl
Who’s curls stretch towards the heavens
calling upon the angels above
giving me the strength of those
who have walked these same grounds before me
Breaking barriers,
intersections that were once halted by bright red stop signs
now flow seamlessly in directions that were deemed off limits
labeled do not touch
I am the Malcolm X’s, Afeni Shakur’s, James Baldwin’s, and Nikki Giovanni’s
who used their vibrant vocabulary’s to preach words of radicalism
Words so sweet, curing every inch of self doubt that ever dared to infiltrate
the minds and souls of every brotha and sista
I am a freedom writer
telling stories of a better day
A day seeming so realistic
you nearly forget the current state of life in which you live
No.
I will not be stripped of my identity.
I will not be poked, prodded and manipulated
until I fit the mold you cast me to be
Yes I do write.
I am a writer.
Am I who you may think I am to be?
You will never know
One thing writing has taught me,
I can make you believe
I am whatever,
Or whoever I may want to be
Without you never ever feeling, knowing…
their she him we he her they…
me.