“ain’t i a woman?”

In 1851 Kingston native Sojourner Truth electrified audiences at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, OH with an extemporaneous speech on the value of womanhood known as “Ain’t I a Woman?” Having been invited to create a mural for the O + Festival in Kingston, New York my collaborator Jess X. Chen and I wanted to honor the historical contribution of Sojourner Truth to the women’s rights movement and her role as an humanitarian by asking three New York City based, African-American, female poets to share with us poems pertaining to African-American womanhood. The three poets included Jennifer Falu; writer, poet and teacher T’ai Freedom Ford and writer, poet and director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Mahogany Browne. Sadly, due to time constraints only Mahogany Browne and T’ai Freedom Ford were included in the mural.

In celebrating these poets Jess + I chose to include verses of their poems as halos around their heads. Mahogany Browne’s halo is extracted from her poem “Black Girl Magic.”

They say you ain’t posed to be here

You ain’t posed to wear red lipstick

You ain’t posed to wear high heels

You ain’t posed to smile in public

You ain’t posed to smile no where, girl

You ain’t posed to be more than a girlfriend

You ain’t posed to get married

You ain’t posed to want no dream that big

You ain’t posed to dream at all

You ain’t posed to do nothing but carry babies

And carry weaves

And carry felons

And carry families

And carry confusion

And carry silence

And carry a nation — but never an opinion

You ain’t posed to have nothing to say

unless its a joke

Cause you ain’t posed to love yourself Black Girl

You ain’t posed to find nothing worth saving in all that brown

You ain’t posed to know that Nina Beyonce Tina Cecily Shonda Rhimes shine shine shine

Black Girl,

You ain’t posed to love your mind

You ain’t posed to love

You ain’t posed to be loved up on

You only posed to pose voodoo Chile’ vixen style

You posed to pop out babies & hide the stretch marks

You posed to be still

So still they think you statue

So still they think you a chalked outline

So still they keep thinking you stone

Until you look more Medusa than Viola Davis

Until you sound more Shenananay than Kerry Washington

Until you more side eye than Michelle Obama on a Tuesday

But You tell them you are more than a hot comb & a wash n set

You are kunta kente’s kin

You are a black Girl worth remembering

& You are a threat knowin yourself

Loving yourself

Loving your kin

Loving your children

you black girl magic

you black girl flyy

you black girl brilliance

you black girl wonder

you black girl shine

you black girl bloom

you black girl black girl

And you turning into a beautiful blk woman right before they eyes

T’ai Freedom Ford shared her poem “I Sell the Shadow to Sustain the Substance” which she dedicates to African-American conceptualist Glenn Ligon and to Sojourner Truth. Verses of her poem were projected onto her and used in her halo.

“I Sell the Shadow to Sustain the Substance”

As a Black woman I am untitled – nameless.

My heart a faint glow of neon wire buzzing toward some shameless demise.

I stand against walls looking nonchalant.

Flashbulbs mistake me for celebrity or bored whore.

Same difference.

As Black woman I am installation art as negress.

My heart a black plastic bag ghosting streets.

What parts of me ain’t for sale as woman?

A sincere word of thanks goes out to Gaia, the Kingston O Positive Festival, Michael Pisacane, Andrew Erdos, Clara Darrason, Mahogany Browne, T’ai Freedom Ford, Jennifer Falu, Jess X. Chen and the good people of Kingston, NY.