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We are called angry Black women because we are not afraid of bare arms. We pay close attention to our arms, holding our children tight inside of them. We are called angry Black women because we use our arms to wave to each other, because we boldly swing our arms when we walk, because we know arms reach out, give regard, sometimes we even hire haute couture designers who have done their homework, who know we are no armless hipless mannequins.

I have decided that when I hear another fine Black woman fallaciously referred to as an angry Black woman during Black History Month this year, that I will stop whatever I am in the middle of and meditate on my personal list of other Black women who had great regard for their bare arms: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Barbara Jordan, Modjeska Monteith Simkins, Lorraine Hansberry, Beulah Butler Davenport (grandmother), Frances Davenport Finney (mother), as well as the fierce line of great aunts: Otelia, Nanny, Mary, Bertha. Here on these sacred black winged things, I will zoom and linger for the duration. Black amber, caramel, elegant, muscular, long, pillow-like, black bare arms akimboed at the hip or side. American history has not acknowledged the black arms of Black women. But Black History knows the arms of Black women very well.

Black arms on Black women are valuable apparatuses: for escaping, pointing to North Star freedom; recruiting Black troops for the Union Army; penciling notions of women’s suffrage; documenting, detailing the horrors of lynching (circa 1892), and thereby inventing investigative journalism in America; pecking out, scene by scene, manual typewriter blazing the timeless A Raisin In The Sun. Brave black arms assist in the raising of a historical hand. Remember that day in the House of Representatives, 1972, ‘the Inquisitor’ she called herself at the impeachment hearings for President Richard Nixon. Bare black arms show up like early travel signage of American history: STOP– GO - TURN HERE. To make a young country stronger, better, more just.

Black arms on Black women defended themselves from raging policemen and sex-crazed guardians of the old guard. Wiser Black arms taught us to high fly our younger Black arms like proud banners of the Black country we dreamed our lives forward from. The Black arms of the Black women of so many families drove buses and carried weighty purses that doubled as hammerheads. Barriers might need dismantling between breakfast and supper…

The Bare Arms of Angry Black Women, Nikky Finney

Greetings from a ngh in the middle of one of America's epicenters of chaos & death.

This is me calling on my ancestors. Using the medicine they gave me. Fire ass gospel. CBD. Mucuna tincture. Breathwork. Silence.

This is me. Escaping the corners of my home sanctuary where my co workers keep ask me hourly for food and snacks & have full out cry fits when it's nap time or ask me to watch them do this or that every 5 minutes.

Here I am walking out of the front door and into the sun. No further than the front yard but out still where the dandelions are stretching up from the Earth rising above a blanket of violets & dead purple nettle.

This is me before I asked permission to pick a few for myself. Talked to my son about wild edibles & free medicine and the healing properties in plantain. This is me after filling every crevice of my lungs w/ medicine air for free. After filling my home sactuary with the aroma of Berber spice, garlic, & fresh chopped onions & sandalwood incense. After simmering quinoa & offering gratitude for the abundance in everything.

On my face there is a smile secreting honey from my endocrine glands into my blood. This is the faith of the mustard seed. The leap preceding the unknown.

Here I am as sanctuary. Even in chaos. This is the gratitude a master teacher showed me was wealth of the multi verse.

Literary magic.

Sis. You enough. There is no one waiting to complete you. Already you whole. Couldn't nobody run off with parts of you if they tried. A message to my *younger* Self that joined me today laughing, beaming, time (re)claimed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4jJYR-pwgn/?igshid=uuj0g0agdabc

I am my Brothers keeper (Thats) Why the mourning so hard Why the morning so hard . . I carry them all in my heart Each one A name A mothers son Blood of my blood A phantom pain That strikes into marrow . . With phantom hands I have cupped bullet wounds Wept as the blood of my beating heart seeped onto concrete Rivers In balmed the shells of dying Man With incantation & my grandmother's herbs & Still the mourning The after The absence The space between breath The stillness & void The snatching away of god The knowing god by a new name & veneration . . The veil so thin The shadows of god at 3 a.m The pouring out of water & wine Into the Earth That holds this heart The heart of a keeper of Brothers A securer of God's Those realized Those forgotten Those at odds with systems That devise to destroy The Sun . . I call them by name These seeds that bloom as millions more In their wake In memorial In the stead of bodies In tribute To the resilient Defiant Spirit Of a Blk god That can not be destroyed That can not cease His existing Or lose His momentum I call their names An army of Ancestors Of Brothers & Father's & uncles & Soldiers Warriors Rising Rising Rising Out of the smoldering ashes Of seers & Into Light ____ #redblackandgreen #blklove #jahiforever https://www.instagram.com/p/B22tp-bptlO/?igshid=1f5c1i7pyvmkc

Sometimes when death stumbles into your life you have to remind yourself that it is just another door- another opening. Not an end but a continuance. The same light & love & law presented in a new form. Even as the tears fall remember family that the flesh mourns the flesh but the (eternal) spirit rejoices the (eternal) spirit. . . For all the lessons and the builds. For holding one of the most culturally relevant open mics in the city. For the encouragement..the advice. The dedication to the Community..the Children. Those without. He was too big for words. A mentor. A friend. *godpops*. He was a G. His Legacy of living & loving BLK 24/24 will endure forever. Islam Moor ✋🏿 . . 🎶 There is only more life- this I am aware of- so glad that I know you are all that I am made of 🎶 #detroitlegend https://www.instagram.com/p/B2y73x7p5F2/?igshid=1iwura7w24qh8

Children's corner- cultivating inherent gifts, creavity, & focus in our divine youths. Thankyou to Detroit artist Ashley Mcfadden assisted by blkfuture artist- her daughter Angela for guiding this painting workshop again for our babies. Some adults joined in and had fun too! ..we are all children at heArt. Thankyou @meccacon for "being my Tasneem" & documenting 📸 yesterday's moments. 💕🤗 https://www.instagram.com/p/BzYK1y6FwgX/?igshid=evdfmt6oausy

6:30:19 Sage Smoke Noon-4 For the love of the people For the love of the god in us all. Vegan food (like made of actual plants & stuff, yep🤗). Sea moss gel. Crystal jewelry. Holistic skin love. Yoga. Children's yoga. Tarot readings. Womb care. Flower ritual. Fellowship. Communion. We the sage. We the bay laurel & the Palo santo. We the crystal body & the totem. Our bodies. Our hood. Our cities. Our children. Our potential. is as divine & limitless as we say it is. Gather all that saying & ' b e l i e v i n g' & magnify it triple fold when the healers & the melanated ones gather our wattage together in the name of elevation, personal healing, & global wholeness. 🌿🖤 . . ✨✨✨Tee's available for purchase in size wmns S-2x✨✨✨ #sagesmoke2019 #vibration #resonance #frequencymatters #summerishome #dearsisters https://www.instagram.com/p/By3Yf0wlqB0/?igshid=6jckeo5we0ld

Hapi birthday to the 👑 that changed my life when I was in the 6th grade with all his BLK power talk & IDGAF BLK god swag. My big brother in my head & heart. Afeni's sun. Ali's bornday kindred. Hapi bornday Afeni. Hapi bornday to mySelf. Tupac Amaru Shakur forever. ♊ Photo swiped from @bluelotusessentials https://www.instagram.com/p/Byxh4f7Fo4g/?igshid=k9dxk4cuxfpb

♥️🙌🏿🎉🥬 32 oz of yes Lawd *The foam helps keep all the nutrients locked inside the glass so I don't bother straining* I have done & do a million small things in a day from picking up crumbs (99 times) to changing diapers (formerly), preparing an endless sea of snacks & refilling cups & dumping pottys & washing fiftylevenmillion dishes fiftylevenmillion million times. As a Mother I have signed up to be a servant to the mundane requests & daily rituals that Motherhood asks/requires of us. Because guiding young gods into full grown adult ones is as fulfilling and profound as it is mundane & exhausting. & So I offer myself ritual. Over the course of a day I fill my own cup with deep breathing/ dance/ stretching/ & real food (because Mhood requiresReal Food, ok?) Many of the things that we do for ourselves offer us momentary pleasure or excitement & then we are brought "back to reality". There is no lasting effect, at least not one that reaches into the blood & the bones & the heart & mind. Pouring green juice & tonic herbs into mySelf daily I am filled with gratitude & an experience of the abundance that is All. Remembering that the physical body that I am currently inhabiting is as efficient as I allow & in form it to be. Pouring green juice & tonic herbs & using oil minimally & drinking water & slathering myself in nut butters & aloe vera pulp & frankincense these are all acts of reverence for my truest Self beyond the physical & yet using the physical body/realm as the vehicle to a higher sense of awareness. & So these are the things that I do for mySelf. Keeping the circuits clear to receive & transmit as clearly as possible. Do something for your Self everyday. Be it drinking a green juice. Meditating quietly. Hydrating hourly. Yoga or Qigong. Powernaps matter. Steamy bubble baths with the Himalayan Salt (unless high BP) or rose quartz and eucalyptus leaves. You arrived here alone & you will leave here alone. Fortify you. Fortify your breath. You are your best thing. I am my best thing. #greenjuice #theastralbody #healthehood #forthelow #chlorophyll #juiceoclock #blackvegansofig https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt1tBJwDj_9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9l84wk2tkfph

Live W E L L Just left a celebration of life for a Sister of excellence. Feeling all the feels of wonder. Of life's temporal nature. Of the expanse beyond the veil. Of the Work & the good to be done here & the digging & undoing of the karmic shackles. Yo. what a time to be alive. & what a time to never die. #immortals https://www.instagram.com/p/BoCYTHqlNNg9Blfp0jJa7nxzI2DXj5HmgxJSpM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=a8vu6duztssx

To some a rock To some a world #newancientafricanfrontporchtherapy #lemuria #lemurianseedcrystal

It's an ugly nation Pack your cayenne pepper Razor blades & prayer Black tourmaline & ginga This nation so ugly I got prayers shooting out my feet & palms every day. Projecting at least 20 feet ahead & behind. & Nghs tell us to smile. Nghs, we concentrating on life & death & seeing & sensing round corners before we get there. We busy thanking ancestors & creator for the last time we narrowly escaped or avoided some traumatizing happening on the way home from the grocery store or the gas station. We at war w (too many) Nghs & the whole gotdamn rest of the world. #protecthertho #floridawater #quartz #sage #fire #firstworldproblemz #whenpplbelievesocialconstructs

It's an ugly nation Pack your cayenne pepper Razor blades & prayer Black tourmaline & ginga This nation so ugly I got prayers shooting out my feet & palms every day. Projecting at least 20 feet ahead & behind. & Nghs tell us to smile. Nghs, we concentrating on life & death & seeing & sensing round corners before we get there. We busy thanking ancestors & creator for the last time we narrowly escaped or avoided some traumatizing happening on the way home from the grocery store or the gas station. We at war w (too many) Nghs & the whole gotdamn rest of the world. #protecthertho #floridawater #quartz #sage #fire #firstworldproblemz #whenpplbelievesocialconstructs

It's an ugly nation Pack your cayenne pepper Razor blades & prayer Black tourmaline & ginga This nation so ugly I got prayers shooting out my feet & palms every day. Projecting at least 20 feet ahead & behind. & Nghs tell us to smile. Nghs, we concentrating on life & death & seeing & sensing round corners before we get there. We busy thanking ancestors & creator for the last time we narrowly escaped or avoided some traumatizing happening on the way home from the grocery store or the gas station. We at war w (too many) Nghs & the whole gotdamn rest of the world. #protecthertho #firstworldproblems (at Ferndale, Michigan)

Happy born day Buddha bear.

Black grrl Magic #positiveselfimage #blackgold