Let Us Now Praise Carefree Black Girls

It’s the year of our Lord 2021 and people are still figuratively (and literally) trying to police Black girls and women’s bodies.

Why?

I know why, but I want and need Black folk to stop. When reading about the backlash that the talented, beautiful Chloe Bailey encountered while living her best life on the ‘Gram and internets the first thought I had was “Phew if that were me, I, too, would be out here.” After swatting away my negative body image thoughts, my next thought was how important it is for Black women, femmes, and non-conforming folk to live their lives as freely as they can. Knowing how difficult that can be and even how impossible it can feel. Nevertheless, I believe we have to try.

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

— Toni Morrison

Easier said than done, but it’s what we owe ourselves, our ancestors, and the future.

I grew up in a very religious (Christian) family and developed a lot of hangups about a lot of stuff. It wasn’t until I was in college, studied and lived in France, and got out and about in the world that I started to question what I believed, how I wanted to show up in the world, and what I wanted to do about it. These are questions I’m still trying to answer to this day and I feel like I’m constantly asking if aspects of my life resonate with me or if I need to let them go. So when a young lady like Chloe is engaging in her freedom and loving herself out loud in public I LOVE TO SEE IT. A small part of me wishes I had taken advantage of that freedom when I was younger and a larger part hopes that I can figure out how to tap into that freedom and self-love now, in this moment, and from now on.

All of this is why “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” x Deesha Philyaw resonated with me so deeply. It’s a collection of stories of churched Black women trying to navigate their intimate lives within or related to the environment of the church. These characters, like all of us, contain multitudes and it was affirming to see their

“The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” is in conversation with two other books I read and appreciated “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval” x Saidya Hartman and “Girl, Gurl, Grrrl: On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic” x Kenya Hunt. Separately, these books provide an opportunity to reflect on how Black women, femmes, and nonconforming folk have snatched and amplified freedom when they could and reflections on contemporary life.

These books are all (apparently needed) reminders that Black women are not responsible for other’s expectations of them. Period.

I hope that Chloe and anyone else, but especially Black women, looking for freedom find themselves on both the pages of these books and out in these streets.

“Living For The City”

“I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don't change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, stop giving just enough for the city”

-Living for the City x Stevie Wonder

The City We Became x N.K. Jemisin is a love letter to one of the greatest cities in the world (ask a New Yorker, they’ll tell you) and to the people and classes of people that make cities worth living in: creators, strivers, dreamers, doers, longterm residents, and those willing to fight for what they love. When I first heard about The City We Became, I was in no questions asked. I ordered the book a few weeks, months, years ago when shelter-in-place started for me and waited. 

I’ve found that so much of my experience in reading a book depends on when in my life I’m encountering it. By the time it arrived on my doorstep I had had several weeks of wondering what would become of my city and cities across the United States and around the world in the aftermath of quarantining and sheltering-in-place in the age of COVID-19. so this book hit different, as the kids say.

The premise is that cities are living, dynamic entities-anyone who lives in or has visited one probably knows and feels this to be true, but Jemisin works magic by looping us into a secret about how easy it is for the essence of cities to die. Our story starts with a Prologue by an unnamed character that was so potent I couldn’t help but be drawn in, rooting for this kid who is young and gifted and also poor and Black. He makes the acquaintance of an older guy who hips him to the fact that something strange is happening in New York and then we’re off to the races to save New York. We then meet people who are also living for the city. Our team of characters/boroughs are introduced in such an elegant way-beyond stereotypes or caricatures of the boroughs, Jemisin provides historical context and substance to explain how we’ve come to know Manny, Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Aislyn. 

The novel is a defiant allegory and for some it might feel too on the nose, but I think Jemisin’s prose keeps the story from being simplistic and the reader on their toes.

I don’t want to say much more because there’s so much delight and affirmation to be found in its pages. You have to experience it for yourself.

Who’s this story for? Me and you, your mama, and your cousin too. Seriously, if you’ve

• Ever visited the city that never sleeps or wanted to

• Known a New Yorker

• Thought about community building

• Protested against gentrification

• Feared that your city is losing its unique qualities

• Been craving a literary escape

If you haven’t read this book, stop, drop, turn around and patronize your favorite independent bookshop and buy the book.  Consider buying from Harriett’s Bookshop or The Booksmith. Once you receive your copy, do yourself a favor and listen to Stevie Wonder’s iconic song “Living for the City” before diving in. I think it’s a perfect complement to The City We Became.

Happy Reading!