Son of Adam.Born of Eve. Created by God. Corrupted by Devil. I am Good, I am Evil, I am HUMAN.
I can’t have it both ways. I can not simultaneously argue and agree with the notion that aspects of society as so systematic and so pervasive that the engulf everyone that is raised in this country while also believing myself to be beyond reproach simply because I’ve read about/am aware of this…
from my journal 8.17.12 (while listening to “Circles” by Krystle Warren)
*sidebar* relationships are interesting. they do in fact move in circles, but sometimes, just sometimes the track slips loose and travelers unknowingly (or sometimes with full knowledge) move on to a different path. and it makes sense. we all like to travel, move, explore and there are times that we need to travel alone. and it is during this time that we really learn the most about ourselves. as i am spending more and more time in my own space, i am learning the intricacies of what it is that i need and hope for and desire in my relationships. i realize, truly, that i am the one who can love me best. maybe that is what people mean when they say that they can see the God in you. I can see the God in me and “i love her fiercely.” “relationships move in circles…” and yes, there is always the hope that we will come back to each other, but if the paths never cross again, and the silence that went from deafening to a comfortable lull becomes the fortress that our love built, i can say that i learned and i loved and i can take away the good and the bad and grow and that, i have found, is the beauty of relationships.
I never asked Tolstoy to write for me, a little colored girl in Lorain, Ohio. I never asked [James] Joyce not to mention Catholicism or the world of Dublin. Never. And I don’t know why I should be asked to explain your life to you. We have splendid writers to do that, but I am not one of them. It is that business of being universal, a word hopelessly stripped of meaning for me. Faulkner wrote what I suppose could be called regional literature and had it published all over the world. That’s what I wish to do. If I tried to write a universal novel, it would be water. Behind this question is the suggestion that to write for black people is somehow to diminish the writing. From my perspective there are only black people. When I say ‘people,’ that’s what I mean.
—
Toni Morrison (via tobia)
*takes note*
(via lawd-knows)(Source: tinyfist, via orobolicious)
There are moments when I think that the collective desire to be seen as beautiful is a direct challenge to the white gaze.
Often times, I read posts here on Tumblr about how Black beauty is trashed by white hegemony. I agree wholeheartedly. Thus, there are many blogs devoted to Black beauty.
Personally, those blogs don’t interest me because they still play within a very messed up system.
I understand the need to see ourselves in positive light. At the same time, I wonder if that is enough.
Are we truly resisting the status quo or are we trying to make space for ourselves in it?
Nowadays I focus more on my humanity - my personhood. That, and that alone should be enough for me to be treated with respect. Not my perceived beauty.
POC should not need any qualifiers in order to get the respect that is theirs by default.
Well, is it a terrible loss not to be able to buy a big car, or is it an opportunity to regain our legs? … I think you look at the “Motor City” and how the auto industry has depopulated the city, has made us dependent upon cars, has done so much to remove people from the streets and to the decline of neighborhoods… A lot of the decline of neighborhoods and of community is due to the auto industry.
—
Grace Lee Boggs (b. 1915), Chinese American philosopher, civil rights legend, and social activist.
On Being Podcast: Becoming Detroit
and very interesting talks on Urban Farming
Went to Angela Davis & Grace Lee Boggs “in conversation” today and certainly have a lot to think about.
(via vanessamcqueen)
(Source: swandiver, via orobolicious)
The obnoxious self-righteousness of liberals who accuse everyone but themselves of oppression is topped only by the obnoxious self-righteousness of conservatives who accuse everyone but themselves of freeloading.
— An Anonymous friend of mine (I think he stole it from reddit though. but I couldn’t find it). (via anticapitalist)
(via orobolicious)
Today, I made a small list of things that make me smile. I have hidden this list and many other lists like this in unexpected places. I do not remember many of them but eventually I will find them. Why do I do this? Because one day I will meet you. The you who will make words trap between my…
Rotimi Fani-Kayode: Nothing to Lose
Born in 1955, Oluwarotimi (Rotimi) Adebiyi Wahab Fani-Kayode was a Nigerian photographer working principally in Britain. He explored the tensions created by sexuality, race and culture through stylised portraits and compositions. The main body of his work was created between 1982-1989.
Wonderful. I’m taking notes.
(Source: afrocentrico, via orobolicious)
Rotimi Fani-Kayode was born in Lagos, Nigeria in April 1955, the second child of Chief Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode and Chief Mrs Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode, their third child was Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a Nigerian politician and who was the former Minister of Aviation for Nigeria.
This prominent Yoruba family moved to Brighton, England, in 1966, after a military coup and the ensuing civil war. Rotimi pursued his secondary education in England where he went to a number of private schools including Brighton college, Seabright College and Millfield then moved to the USA in 1976 to complete his education. He read Fine Arts and Economics, gaining a BA, at Georgetown University, Washington DC and gained an MFA at the Pratt Institute, New York in Fine Arts & Photography. Whilst in New York he became friendly with Robert Mapplethorpe and later admitted to Mapplethorpe’s influence on his work.
He returned to the UK in 1983. He died in a London hospital of a heart attack whilst recovering from an AIDS related illness on the December 12, 1989. At the time of his death, he was living in Brixton, London with his partner and collaborator Alex Hirst.
Although admitting to some influence by Mapplethorpe’s earlier work, Rotimi Fani-Kayode pushed the bounds of his own art much further, exploring sexuality, racism, colonialism and the tensions and conflicts between his homosexuality and his Yoruba upbringing through a series of images in both colour and B/W.
His work is imbued with the subtelty, irony and political and social comment that one would expect from an intelligent and observant black photographer of the late twentieth century. He also contributed much to the artistic debate around HIV and AIDS.
He started to exhibit in 1984 and was involved with nine exhibitions between then and his death at the end of 1989. He has since had his work featured posthumously in many exhibitions and retrospectives. His work has been exhibited in the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Italy, Nigeria, Sweden, Germany, South Africa and US. In 1987 along with Mark Sealy he co-founded AUTOGRAPH ABP and became their first Chair. He was also an active member of The Black Audio Film Collective.
He was a major influence on young black photographers in the late 1980s and 1990s. Following Alex Hirst’s death in 1992 there was some controversy over attribution of his work, a discussion that still continues.
“My identity has been constructed from my own sense of otherness, whether cultural, racial or sexual. The three aspects are not separate within me. Photography is the tool by which I feel most confident in expressing myself. It is photography therefore — Black, African, homosexual photography — which I must use not just as an instrument, but as a weapon if I am to resist attacks on my integrity and, indeed, my existence on my own terms.”
Beyond the obvious difference in time, class differences (my parents were NOT royalty ha), the difference in sexuality, and the not-so-obvi difference in ethnic tribe, I have a lot of things in common with Fani-Kayode:
Born in Lagos, worked/learned in the DC area, made art, tackled perceptions and self-image as a form of therapy, self-defense and self-determination. I will def be taking lessons from he dude, this is some inspiring stuff for me.
(via orobolicious)
This Post. I’m gonna save it on my laptop, Hope S/he doesnt mind, and will give it to all my kids when they turn 13. This is a legacy of truth.
I’m a closet romantic. I’m sure that my close friends are aware of this however, I am almost certain that they are oblivious to the full extent of my sappiness. I’m fine with that arrangement. There are many things that I have sealed away. When it comes to…
sometimes I dislike my locs
sometimes I want to braid them down and slap on one of those cute hombre dip dyed lace fronts.
Sometimes I see the way people look at me and I break a little more.
But I’ve always been too sensative
Today he called me nuerotic as my fears can overwhelm me
People’s…
I am hurting in a place that I did not know existed.
Tonight, we are away from each other.
I don’t know if you are alive.You will forget me as each day passes.
First you will forget my warmth,
and soon I will lose all form.
I will cease to be human,
fade away and unthread.I am hurting deep inside of me,
a place I thought had died.
For I did not know it at the time,
but I had fallen in love with you.I thought that feeling was dead.
But tonight, it’s slowly burning into me.
Crack game is magic
And fast money leads to
Crack game hustle habits
All the while the
Crack game induces addicts
But you fail to realize
That your hustle habit is just as strong is an addicts
Crack hustle like an addict
So game claims more lives than just the addict
Get some knowledge
moneys green for a reason
Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you; we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs on the reasons they are dying.
—
Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” (via arewomenhuman)
Exactly.
(via readnfight)
Just got done reading this for WS. This was one of my favorite quotes.
(via laurenmitchell)
woke up early to write a paper this morning. had to comb through the depths of tumblr to find this quotes…
(via newwavefeminism)
(via orobolicious)
This Post. I’m gonna save it on my laptop, Hope S/he doesnt mind, and will give it to all my kids when they turn 13. This is a legacy of truth.
I’m a closet romantic. I’m sure that my close friends are aware of this however, I am almost certain that they are oblivious to the full extent of my sappiness. I’m fine with that arrangement. There are many things that I have sealed away. When it comes to…
(Source: , via spawnofhumanbeings)