“ WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A SUN-DRENCHED INTIMATE CATHEDRAL OF SPACE CREATED FOR THE QUESTIONS BLACK GIRLS WANT TO ASK? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A 21ST CENTURY SACRED PLACE FOR THEIR 400-YEAR-OLD, MY-MOTHER-WAS-NOT-INFERIOR-AND-I- AM-NOT INFERIOR-EITHER ATTITUDE? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A SHRINE OF A PLACE FOR THE WAY A BLACK GIRL WANTS TO SHAKE AND MOVE? THIS IS NOT BLASPHEMY. THIS IS SOLHOT.
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THIS IS THE MEETING HOUSE, WHERE THE SOUL AND THE EYES OF BLACK GIRLS CONNECT. THIS IS THE BLACK GIRL PRAISE HOUSE, WHERE THE HEART AND HEEL, GLIDE IN. THIS IS THE OPEN DOOR WHERE STRAIGHT GIRLS COME EYE-TO-EYE WITH GAY GIRLS AND DON’T ALWAYS SAY THE RIGHT OR KIND OR POLITICALLY CORRECT THING , BUT LEARN TO NOT LOOK AWAY FROM EACH OTHER.
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THIS IS A PLACE WHERE INCENSE, THE PERFUME OF THE ANCESTOR’S, ALERTS BLACK GIRLS THAT THEY HAVE NOT ENTERED YET ANOTHER HOUSE OF DISTORTED MIRRORS, BUT A ROOM WHERE THE EYES OF OTHERS, DIFFERENT AND SIMILAR TO HER OWN, GIVE BACK A REFLECTION OF TRUTH, SOMETHING REAL SHE CAN HOLD ON TO, WHERE SHE, BLACK GIRL, JUST MIGHT APPRECIATE AND FATHOM OTHER DIVINE , GOOD, AND POSSIBLE THINGS ABOUT HERSELF.”
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- Nikky Finney, Poet
Excerpt from " Pinky Swear",
in Black Girlhood Celebration:
Toward A Hip-Hop Feminist
Pedagogy
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