Fly, Black Bird
Nina Simone’s 1966 “Blackbird” represents the constant emotional turmoil that black women experience She provoked the inner conflict within all of us, our constant battle between attempting to ignore naysayers and crippling self-doubt, with lyrics like:
“you ain’t got no one to hold you. you ain’t got no one to care. if you’d only understand, dear, nobody wants you anywhere. so, why you wanna fly?”
For so long, we were treated as if our skin color meant we just couldn’t do or be what we wanted. We were unwanted, unappreciated, and abandoned. People didn’t believe in us. But they were all wrong.
We thank Ms. Simone for using her art to bring light to the many struggles of our people. The following poem is dedicated to her because this black bird will never forget why she wants to fly.
They all had something to say But never the right answer. Constant comments from the sidelines Making doubt grow like cancer.
‘Cause they had this sense of supremacy
For them, all they knew was “we” But not the kind of we that included me. Nobody cared about she. It was always more important what their “we” wanted to see And what they needed from she Than what she desired to be, Which was herself.
…But they left her no room to spread her wings.
For them, it was just too much Watching this woman who lived with such Passion and conviction, Unafraid to test her limits Letting go of artistic inhibition. The toxic “we” hated knowing they placed no constriction On the resilience of her soul.
It killed them that they couldn’t control her being.
And, in that case, she preferred to see them dead.