Silence Turned Shotgun

Tonya Ingram is the 2011 New York Knicks Poetry Slam champion, a member and co-founder of NYU's poetry slam team, a member of the 2011 Urban Word-NYC team, the 2013 Nuyorican Grand Slam team and the 2015 Da Poetry Lounge Slam team. She is a 2014 Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of Growl and Snare. Her work has traveled throughout the United States, Ghana, The Literary Bohemian, Huffington Post, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, LupusChick.com, For Harriet, Buzzfeed, Afropunk, Rude Magazine, Cultural Weekly, The WILD, Upworthy, To Write Love On Her Arms, Youtube and season four of Lexus Verses and Flow. She has shared the stage with Hill Harper, Soledad O' Brien, President Clinton, Anthony Hamilton, Lynn Whitfield, and others. She is a New York University alumna, a Cincinnati native, a Bronx-bred introvert currently residing in Los Angeles where she is pursuing her MFA in Public Practice at Otis College of Art & Design.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

Another Black Girl Miracle - not a cult

Another Black Girl Miracle is a testimony. It is the documentation of healing. It is a tale of womanhood; its awkwardness and its rewards. Filled with themes of depression, sexuality, identity and wonder, this text not only examines what it means to be a young black girl in the world, but what it takes to participate in her own resurrection and rebirth. Edited by Safia Elhillo. Cover design by Cassidy Trier. Interior layout by Lea C. Deschenes. Cover photograph courtesy of author. Page count TBD, softcover (matte), 5.5 x 8.5 inches. ISBN 978-1-945649-07-3

THE WAIT IS OVER! 

PRE-ORDERS FOR MY FIRST FULL-LENGTH BOOK, 'ANOTHER BLACK GIRL MIRACLE', ARE AVAILABLE VIA not a cult PRESS! 

Tell your kids. Tell the bodega owner. Tell your grandma. Tell RuPaul. 

My heart is full, friends. I want to share this tugboat of feelings with you. 

Through sickness, renting my first apartment, finding love, fighting depression and graduating with a MFA, y'all have been there for it all and I am forever grateful for your support. 

You can pre-order your copy here: http://notacult.media/product/miracle/

Excuse me while I weep an ocean of joy.

Take care, good ones. I cannot wait for you to take this wild ride with me.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

#heavyandlight

in times of heavy, there is light. thank you TWLOHA for a wild, necessary and courageous night. choose to bloom, friends.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

hiatus

and again the doctor explains to me the complexity of being in this body. he explains the aggression of a disease i cannot get rid of. and again i want to understand but that is a lie. and again i want to be a version of healthy a medical procedure cannot rob me of. and again the organ located in the small of my back is its own ruin. and again 'transplant' is said and the house i built is in need of only love for it to outgrow this mad, mad diagnosis. again, i step away from the noise and lift a song only for my blood and its swayin'. because my god, i am getting tired and smaller and lost. because my god, tell me this body is going somewhere other than here.

friends, it's been a rough week. i will be taking a social media hiatus to focus on my health. be well, good ones.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

wake up, friend & take flight. you are a trip around the sun. you are what keeps you going.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

when you find your old prom video and you and your boo laugh at how awkward and gassy you were and still are. #classof09

[twloha]

Our favorite night of the year is just around the corner, and tickets are now on sale. Join us Saturday, April 1 at the House of Blues Orlando for HEAVY AND LIGHT. If you aren’t familiar with HEAVY AND LIGHT, it’s our flagship event, an evening of songs, conversation and hope. This year’s lineup includes some familiar faces along with one debut. Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot) is back, along with The Rocket Summer (acoustic) and Zach Williams (of The Lone Bellow). We’re honored to have Propaganda with us for the first time, and we’re excited about the return of spoken word poet Tonya Ingram, who stole the show a year ago. (You can read more about the artists here.)

Beyond the artists, HEAVY AND LIGHT always includes compelling speakers, and everyone in the room will leave with a list of local resources, places they can find help in their local community.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

COME HANG OUT WITH ME IN ORLANDO! 

[buttonpoetry]

Best of Button Week 100

For week 100, we're celebrating all the poets who have made the Best of Button list over the last two years!

Check out this special 100th edition of the Best of Button list, highlighting the nearly 200 poets who have made the list over the last two years!

[clementinevonradics]

A cool list to be on <3

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same.

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for my sister.

On Friday, I wrestled with my boyfriend while Donald Trump was sworn into presidency. A bad joke. Everything and everyone I love became a numb hand learning how to practice feeling.

I watch as the country folds into the arch of his brow. There is a red sea of white faces in red hats. And the word God whistles like a river in Mississippi. Like a freedom no longer a freedom.

I imagine that even the rain would like to protest. Like somehow our spirits have come to weep. Like our future has come to warn us.

The bible speaks of revelation and the earth swallowed whole to its end. The bible speaks at his inauguration of a kingdom come. Of a will done. And their hands clap. And the choir is the pulse of America. It's own singed quote. And the teapot I put on the stove is whistling. Like a freedom no longer a freedom

. There is fear. Where my body reveals its name in a different sadness to distract its origin. How every white man I've taken into this body has had a mouth similar in his shape. Has had an opinion similar in his politics.

There is anger. Roaring and daring. I hold my love and ask for its purge. To cleanse me. Once. To cleanse me. Again. Until I am a miracle and not the salt I can become if I look back. I pour my country into our mothers house. And that is a national anthem. That is an elegant resistance.

Do not sour your heart by the ugly they make into sermons. Into law. Into history. Do not unlearn the royalty of your unhinged light. You are a threat. An eclipse.

And the doubt will come. But do not swim. And they will want to touch your hair. But do not allow them. And they will relocate your name. But be the force they cannot stiffen. And they will want and always want, but you are the bible's flood. Amen.

You are the daughter of raised fists and good cooking. Amen. You are running, a black girl, into her own. Amen. You are afraid and brilliant. Amen. And that is okay. Amen.

You are the work learning how to be done.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

forward

i have been thinking about this word a lot. its definition. how i hold it on my tongue. where it travels. how i chant it into the heart of my lover. i am in a place in my life where the generosity of others have allowed me to move forward. and that is where i want to continue. for the next month, i will be away from social media where i will give myself the time to focus, heal and grow. where i will create and find new ways to tell my story and to share it with the world. stay tuned, good friends. stay tuned. thank you for your incredible patience with me. if you need to reach me, email me here: [email protected]

[silenceturnedshotgun]

that incredible moment when you get the keys to your new apartment. thank you to everyone who helped in this process. thank you for every dollar that made this possible. thank you for giving me the joy of having my own space to be. to grow. to live. you have helped this girl celebrate another miracle. #igotthekeys

[silenceturnedshotgun]

stretch marks are real. there are days where i am ashamed of my body. of the stretch marks that make me into a woman who is afraid to wear swimwear or shorts. who is conscience of people who stare at her flaws. i have marks on my feet, legs, waist and arms. but today i celebrate all of it. each touch of skin, a map. each stretch, a story. i thank my lover who sees me, truly. i am rewritten with the work of survival. of standing in my own and loving myself like these stripes are my greatest accomplishment. this post was inspired by my good friend, jo morrison.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

sometimes the miracle comes in telling yourself, "i just have to get through today".

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despite the condition of the soil, i will choose to bloom.

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the necessity of self-joy

I have a chronic illness where if under stress, my body will attack itself. What a metaphor, especially today, where I must find joy in order to stay alive. There is therapy in that word. There is labor in that search. To be the hospital and the revival. To be diagnosed without warning. To be a body in the waiting room and expecting good news, but instead is told there is no cure.

Yes, today is self-joy because today I need to live. Today is an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Today is watching my grandmother laugh. Today is a ten minute meditation. Today is baby back ribs. Today is holding my hand, examining each beautiful, chewed-up nail. Today is a hymn for my family, in all of our glorious dysfunction. Today is apartment searching. Today is unshaven legs and two-stepping to Janis Joplin. Today is a hurdle. A-not-so simple remedy. But you are here. You may be a weeping mess, but you are here. You may want to give up, but you are here. And I promise, I am here with you.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

Go after what you are scared of.

Bishop T.D. Jakes

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the workout plan.

[silenceturnedshotgun]

weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning

psalms 30:5