First off, I’m a blerd. Many of my poems speak to or are inspired by video games and other aspects of popular culture. The poems in this folio are celebrating black feminism, womxn’s sexuality, and black joy while reclaiming what’s been taken from us: our language, our bodies, and our agency. “ode to Tone that ends in a revival.” is an important poem for me especially, because it’s a video game poem that’s directly resisting the idea that video games are electronic garbage.
In terms of form, my poetry is really concerned with white space and how that speaks to the silence that black queer womxn face on a daily basis. In each of our communities, we face an erasure that is both precise and haunting, which can lead to both an inability to use our voices and self-entrapment in the “superhuman” matriarch stereotype. The white space in these poems is an acknowledgement of that silence, of the many black womxn before me who lost their voices, and a reclamation of those words that were stolen. I see them as little containers to pull and trap trauma within the page so that my ancestors’ words can breathe and exist freely.
ode to the walk of shame
an homage to nigga in two parts
![I. // This is for that damn, where you been hiding nigga / and that give me the fuckin' tea nigga / for the I'm bout to roast your ass nigga // and that really nigga, which is to say / throw your hands up. This is for niggas / who wear rachet on their sleeve like // a corsage, whose music can be heard / as they coming down the street [more // bass please]; who ain't afraid to / laugh like a nigga; who know a nigga / in a suit and tie is still a nigga; // who know a well-dressed nigga / will still die like a nigga; / these the niggas I break bread with // these them niggas that are free // II. // In the car with white friends listening to K-Dot, // tongues silent, caressing an absence they expect // me to ignore. Eyes overturned, buried in the corners // of my lips. These are your "allies" -- with pauses uncertain, // breath taut, mouths confused. Dangling. I know this // is what they do in the mirror. Go on then // Say it now I dare you](https://anmly.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/brown_homage_to.png)
ode to tone that ends in a revival
dezireé a. brown is a black queer woman poet, scholar, and self-proclaimed social justice warrior, born and raised in Flint, MI. They are currently an MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University, and often claim to have been born with a poem written across their chest. A Poetry and Non-Fiction Editor for Heavy Feather Review, their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Kweli, BOAAT, decomP, Cartridge Lit, RHINO, and the anthology Best “New” African Poets 2015, among others. They tweet at @deziree_a_brown.
Website: dezireeapoet.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deziree.a.brown