Rhonda Williams aka Indira Wills 10/30/20 Rhonda Williams aka Indira Wills 10/30/20

Untethered

The black woman has been shackled with the baggage of centuries of racial discrimination, religious and social control, censorship, as well as sexual repression.

Matthew Wilson 10/30/20 Matthew Wilson 10/30/20

But This is Not My Child

I could never tell a single soul how I really feel about the girl-child. She is not of me. She is my husband’s child.

Rhonda Williams aka Indira Wills 10/30/20 Rhonda Williams aka Indira Wills 10/30/20

The Universe in Her Eyes

This piece depicts a woman of African descent gazing directly at the viewer as tropical flowers, frozen in motion, waft past her face.

Michelle Clermont 10/30/20 Michelle Clermont 10/30/20

The Objections of Cats

My words pat her on the hand and

Shoo her protests like stray cats

But

She objects just once more

Jeanine M. Gervais 10/30/20 Jeanine M. Gervais 10/30/20

Trapped

My bones and spirit broken

Battered, bruised and slapped.

Words are unspoken

Inside my body trapped.

Claudette Thompson 10/30/20 Claudette Thompson 10/30/20

Hot Oil

It was while she was frying plantains one day that she had a thought. She recalled how her mother used to tell her that to get the best results, the oil had to be very hot. “That’s it!” she exclaimed.

Ragene Williams 10/30/20 Ragene Williams 10/30/20

Daughter of Eve

I desperately grasped for the light, the dark water swallowing me up. The voices mocking me. I couldn’t stop now.

Janielle Browne 10/30/20 Janielle Browne 10/30/20

THE WHITE ROOM

Everything was completely white. I was the only object of colour but for once that excited me. I shut the door behind me and began to look around. There really wasn’t much to see, two white leather couches, white Persian rug, white statue of some naked man. It was boring, but new all the same.

Jeanine M. Gervais 10/30/20 Jeanine M. Gervais 10/30/20

Escape

Looking through this window

Drowning in a river of tears

My bruises begin to show

Silenced by my fears

Child Natale 10/30/20 Child Natale 10/30/20

New Names

We've fought then, we fight now.

Who kyah hear, muss burn. And I'm

tired of that being us,

Nadja Nabbie 10/30/20 Nadja Nabbie 10/30/20

Enjoy Vagina

You wish you could but how do you forget about a guy who feel like it is all right to walk around with the words “Enjoy Vagina” in coca cola font across his chest, as though it were another flavour the company brought out?

Child Natale 10/30/20 Child Natale 10/30/20

Sensory Adaptation

Colonialism never done, only adapted; they changed its mask. We see our leaders are nothing but puppets to the same masters. Spitting in our faces progressive rhetorics while doing their master's bid.

Amelia Badri 10/29/20 Amelia Badri 10/29/20

Brown Oceans

Do oceans that aren’t

green or blue…

Jamal Joseph 10/29/20 Jamal Joseph 10/29/20

Returning to natural roots

Representing how more black women have been embracing their natural hair…

Princess O'Nika Auguste 10/29/20 Princess O'Nika Auguste 10/29/20

Colourism and Good Hair

My partner was a beautiful Muslim woman, and I realized I was jealous of her. Why? Because even though I had never seen her hair under her hijab, I was sure that she must have good hair, not hard hair like I had been cursed with, but the good hair that everyone coveted.

Tricia Sharpe 10/29/20 Tricia Sharpe 10/29/20

Fire in Her Eyes

She saw the spider crawl on the fading blue painted walls of her home. She timidly headed for the broom with the brush end facing the rather large, hairy, strange looking spider.

Annetta Jackson 10/29/20 Annetta Jackson 10/29/20

Unlearning anti-Blackness

It was only after my hair started to grow into its own, after my hair started to gain length that the attitude they had changed. It went from “yuh good hair yuh cut off” to “you get your hair from me; you know Guyanese hair does grow long and nice”. Recently an aunt said in conversation that Black hair can only grow long if you’re mixed with something... I didn’t feel comfortable hearing that.