#OurStoriesInVividColor

Afro Indigenous

In the early stages of my life, I’ve identified as half Navajo & half Black. My growth as a woman, has come to the realization that the word HALF only seperates my two cultures. When in reality, I am complete…I am WHOLE because of both my Diné (Navajo) and African ancestors. I come from people who love the land; and everything that grows from it. My people have a beautiful connection to nature, to animals, and to each other. My people feed each other. I come from people of ancient talents who share their knowledge and craft. I come from people who love, who pray, who sing songs of medicine and happiness. I come from people who dance to heal. I come from people who have risen above oppression who continue to fight for our rights. My People are resilient. My people gather; we gather in celebration and in times of need. My people are here. I am not half of either of my cultures; nor am I more of the other. From my skin, my high cheekbones, my thick hair, my brown eyes, my spirit, my language, and from the art that my heart creates, I am a perfect combination of both. *Shimá (my mom) gifted me this squashblossom💕. The skirt and earrings I’m wearing are treasures I brought back from my trip to Lusaka, Zambia.💕 This combination is a beautiful blend that represents my Afro Indigeneity.

Isabel Mavrides-Calderón

Hi I’m isabel a Disability Justice activist. As a disabled women I’ve learned that disability isn’t a tragedy but instead lack of access is. I have been doing competitive public speaking since middle school and use my public speaking skills for activism, making speeches to any audience or platform that will listen. I also use my passion for writing for my activism as a 3x published writer. As a latina immigrant I know how much intersectional issues affect disability rights which is why I dedicate my activism to fighting for intersectional disability justice for all. Disability is beautiful.

Ladasia Bryant

I attended The Chicago High School for the arts and found myself thrown into a white-dominated art world. I still loved and found fun but at the same time I found it hard to speak about my cultural rich work and at some events felt left out for the fact that there was nobody there that looked like me and could relate to what I was doing. All of this occurred to me during the creation of these wall-length braids I had created which was the first piece I ever made creating this content that had to do with what I grew up around. With that came the name Braided a​nd the idea to create my own empowering art world for POC and only for POC. I am creating a comfortable space to promote and share work and ideas from the BIPOC community. I want to make a platform that does not sensor our art, bodies, or stories. Accepting of all.

Selah Ray

A Woman

Women have the audacity to birth new worlds

With passion and honey on their tongues.

This world would not move without women,

They hold up half the sky.

Reaching with their arms, they shout

FREEDOM

Into the heavens

Raising unsung heroes

From history’s sullen shadows.

What is a Woman?

Intuitive Connecter

Emotional Protector

Fearless Provider

Warrior Queen.

Give her flowers, today.

Say her name.

Harriet, Ida, Marsha, Dolores, Toni,

The Many Sisters

Who hold us in their unflinching grasp

Steadying our shoulders when we tremble

Guiding our steps when we trip on unpaved roads.

They know

What lies ahead is ours to create.

Women’s work is expected, needed

And will no longer be undervalued.

Give her flowers. Today!

The flower of your love, appreciation,

Dedication, and mindfulness.

Listen as she drips sweet honey.

She will grant you her visions,

Lend you her courage,

And always stand by your side.

A short text animated video about my coming out experience over the years and my parents' road to acceptance.

Black Thoughts

I took a poetry class in college, and I wrote this poem for one of our writing assignments. This poem was a combination of thoughts I had about my intersectional identity as a black woman based on my experience and what I observed from society; my hopes were to put these thoughts/observations on paper as a way to not internalize them and also to articulate to outsiders common thoughts that people who share my identity may have had. At first, I didn’t want to submit this piece for peer-review because it was still early on in the semester, and I had yet to see anyone else in the class submit a piece on gender, race, or other political identities. I ended up submitting the piece after encouragement from some campus work friends. The lines that are in quotations are things a friend/acquaintance have said that caught my attention. I still have plans to revise this poem or create a new one to get more into the gender aspect of it, but this is the current draft of my poem titled “Black Thoughts”:

“Bringing a Black daughter into this world is gonna be sad.”
Can you imagine all the internal and external issues she’ll face.
Black body disrespectfully pushed down on the social pyramid.

“Bringing a Black son into this world is gonna be sad.”
Can you imagine all the internal and external issues he’ll face.
Black body unjustly shot down, bloody on the American ground.

Black body a bold statement, black thoughts a deadly one .

“I’m tired of learning about slavery, this shit makes me depressed!”
We’ve been learning about it since like grade school.
No wonder your mind’s a mess.
Standard “it was wrong” remark, acknowledged by all lips.
But whose unsaid beliefs are still applying mental whips?.

“They don’t like Black girls,” no respect for the ghetto kind.
Unless we do a quick bag test, “if she’s not dark then she’s fine.”
Tall, dark, and handsome, athletic fetishized Black boy.
Share your genes with them: fetishized biracial babies to populate the world.

Choose your location wisely, when you travel in an antiblack world:
Do you want to deal with constant microaggressive behavior.
Or do you want to be confronted with straight-up racial slurs.
“You’re far too hyperaware,” oh dear kin of Cain.
But even with rose-colored glasses, red flags look like dark skin.

You can’t say this in class or public, not outside your community.
It’s gotta stay internalized, the audience is you exclusively.
Stay quiet, don’t give them a reason to label you or get on your case.
Keep the black thoughts to yourself; it’s taboo to talk about race.

Cheyenne

Cheyenne Leonard is a twenty-five-year-old Latina woman in a wheelchair. She was a national track competitor in the Jr. Paralympics for 12 years and is currently a model, actress, writer, student, and advocate. She is a fellow of the inaugural Women’s eNews Loreen Arbus “Accessibility is Fundamental” fellowship where she writes articles on disability issues. Cheyenne is currently a Media, Culture, and Communication graduate student at New York University and is looking to use the media to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups and improve disability representation.