About a year ago, I began writing the geometry of being Black. I recognized the need for a poetic reflection of our times. We are living through a black creative renaissance. Black creatives are finding innovative ways to confront how anti-blackness has been threaded into the bricks of our foundations.
I wanted to create a piece of art that splits open the concrete beneath our feet in order to give society a glimpse into the effects of anti-blackness on our community. A piece of art that highlights how anti-blackness creates a trauma that gets passed down from generation to generation.
The book delves into five themes: how the black community is assaulted by anti-blackness, how we as a community internalize and perpetuate anti-blackness, how we unlearn internalized anti-blackness, how we learn to love ourselves and how we resist anti-blackness. Thus, the book is divided into five segments: "receiving," "internalizing," "unlearning," "loving" and "resisting."
"in this life
you will receive
and internalize
anti Blackness.
but this life
will also grant you
the breath to
unlearn it,
resist it,
and love your Blackness again."
Specific topics explored in the book include colorism, police brutality, hair politics, self love, intersectionality, growth, colonialism, toxic masculinity, healing, resilience, and misogynoir.
Misogynoir, originally coined by Professor Moya Bailey of Northeastern University, is a topic which comes up quite often in the book. Black women live in a world that has forgotten to make space for our hearts. We are often treated as if tenderness and love does not belong to us. Darker skinned black women feel the weight of this harshness, and I made sure to place emphasis on this throughout the book.
What makes the geometry of being Black revolutionary is that it isn’t just about black suffering. It's also about black healing. The dehumanization of black bodies has created this space where society feels comfortable highlighting our pain, without needing to make room for our healing. Consistently receiving pain with no outlet is toxic consumption. Many of us swallow our trauma in silence.
the geometry of being Black is a safe space that allows the community to confront this trauma. A space where we can reflect on our feelings of hurt, betrayal and self-loathing. And more importantly, a space where we learn that healing is possible. Beginning at suffering and ending at empowerment, the geometry of being Black is a journey about healing racial trauma.
This book will break your heart open in the beginning, fill it with love in the middle, and sow it back up at the end.
It's available on Amazon here.
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