I declare.

Speaking in my Black girl voice.

[karendurant]

(via [90s Til Infinity] Groove Theory Revisited - Entertainment & Culture - EBONY)

[karendurant]

On the last day of her home-going celebration, Dawn’s husband angrily looked me in the eye saying ..

“You guys think you’re the only sad ones? Who lost someone you love? Fuck your grief, I lost my wife. I loved her more than you know. More than I get credit for. You know why Karen, because she knew me, who I really am and still loved me.”

Quite theatrical for a Sunday morning, in a lobby full of her friends and family. We watched him walk away not considering his sadness until that very moment.

He remains my least favorite person…

But he may be right. Maybe life is… knowing without a doubt you are loved.

[karendurant]

Over the next few months folks will opine, retract, conflate statements made about Mr. Cosby. And I will sip tea. 

As a young girl working in entertainment, I too had encounters with Mr. Cosby - Of which I will not speak. I will say - I am eternally grateful to Ron Mosely (RIP) and his cautionary words - his fatherly advice saved me a world of pain. 

While these “alleged” vile acts are often chalked up to power, prestige and wealth - I see them as an extension of Mr. Cosby’s class warfare. His hatred of the “American worker.” His twisted way of making peace with an embarrassment of riches.

That working women are somehow beneath him, deserving of humiliation - that we exist only for his drunken pleasure. That we are the cause of his social impotence - that we owe him one.

- - - 

Idolizing celebrity is a tricky thing - art vs. expectation - but as mom would say “don’t be fooled baby, they have ‘feet of clay.’”

Yes Ma’am - feet of mutha-fucking clay..

[karendurant]

picked up the phone to dial my mother. that nano second before you remember she is no longer.... 

[karendurant]

Not that one

A long time ago in an airless corporate office a letter awaited my signature.

Drawn up and presented by imposing dark men.

Said letter stating I lied about instances of sexual harassment.

That I was an excitable young girl caught up in the bright lights of the music business. That I misunderstood intention.

And the nice Black men would make it all go away.

I looked at men I once respected and silently cursed them.

May they never find peace.

[karendurant]

blank pages

this may be the toughest year i've lived so far.

[mooshtheory]

[gradientlair]

Always relevant.

[karendurant]

Sarcasm

You haven't lived until your significant other calls you "an old festering piece of shit." Yep.

[karendurant]

Changed my name flipped the narrative back to page one

[karendurant]

These pages are no longer safe for introspection. As ex-lovers, abusers, deadbeats, souls I no longer acknowledge have "posted up" in an attempt to gather bits and pieces of me. To catch a glimpse of my happy. To harass to destroy..

[karendurant]

[grafflicks]

EL FUTURO NO ESTA ESCRITO. | www.grafflicks.com

[cilantro-green-deactivated20181]

The idea of being pregnant for twenty years is a nightmare. Holding it and holding it can’t be good. You don’t want to fetishize your own pain. You don’t want to fall in love with your own story of tragedy. I think I definitely did that for a while. My identity was about that story. And it was very comfortable, in a way. But it was also really tedious and draining, and not helpful for me in terms of the life that I wanted to live and manifest.

Rebecca Walker on being “pregnant” with the story of your own pain - Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me #16 - Sari Botton for The Rumpus (via cilantro-green)

[blackcontemporaryart]

Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans. If we can’t drive, we will invent walks and the world will envy the dexterity of our feet. If we can’t have ham, we will boil chitterlings; if we are given rotten peaches, we will make cobblers; if given scraps, we will make quilts; take away our drums, and we will clap our hands. We prove the human spirit will prevail. We will take what we have to make what we need. We need confidence in our knowledge of who we are.

Nikki Giovanni (via blackcontemporaryart)

[thesmithian-blog]

'...To call Internet racism “trolling” is to minimize it as an act that is not really about racism...'

more.

[kushandwizdom]

[fyblackwomenart]

Artist: Olga Lolo