M.dot's done it again. Already this morning, she introduced me to some folks and a space I've added to my blog roll. I wanted to reprint their Manifesta in electric purple, but that turned out not to be an option on Blogger. I'm posting it anyway -- with a warning. Don't read this if you ain't ready to do feel the music. 'Cause it'll getcha. Right where you live.Here's to the quirky Black girl. Let her know today how much you dig her.
"The Quirky Black Girl Manifesta
"Because Audre Lorde looks different in every picture ever taken of her. Because Octavia Butler didn't care. Because Erykah Badu is a patternmaster. Because Macy Gray pimped it and Janelle Monáe was ready.
"Resolved. Quirky black girls wake up ready to wear a tattered society new on our bodies, to hold fragments of art, culture and trend in our hands like weapons against conformity, to walk on cracks instead of breaking our backs to fit in the mold.
"We're here, We're Quirky, Get used to it!.... Quirky Black girls don't march to the beat of our own drum; we hop, skip, dance, and move to rhythms that are all our own. We make our own drums out of empty lunchboxes, full imaginations and number 3 pencils.
"Quirky Black girls are not quirky because they like white shit; rather they understand that because they like it, it is not the sole province of whiteness.
"Quirky black girls are the answer to the promise that black means everything, birthing and burning a new world every time.
"Sound it out. Quirky, like queer and key, different and priceless, turning and open. Black, not be lack but black one word shot off the tongue like blap, bam, black. Girl, like the curl in a hand turning towards itself to snap, write, hold or emphasize. Quirky. Black. Girl. You see us. Act like you know.
"We demand that our audiences say 'yes-sir-eee' if they agree and we answer our own question 'What good do your words do, if they don't understand you?' by speaking anyway, even if our words are 'bruised and misunderstood.'
"Quirky black girls are hot!
"Whether you're ready to see it or not.
"Quirky means rejecting a particular type of 'value,' a certain unreadiness for consumption and subsumption in an economy of black heterocapital. This means that Quirky Black Girls act independently of dominant social norms or standards of beauty. So fierce that others may not be able to appreciate us just yet.
"No matter what age we are, we hold onto that girlhood drive for adventure, love for friends, independent spirit, wacky sense of humor, and hope for the future.
"Quirky Black Girls resist boxes in favor of over lapping circles with permeable membranes that allow them to ebb and flow through their multiple identities.
"Quirky Black Girls - Embrace the quirky!"
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The photo above is a self-portrait of LaVonna Varnado, one of the quirkiest Black women in my current world.
glad that you agree :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by, quirky. You're welcome anytime.
ReplyDelete"...birthing and burning a new world every time"
ReplyDeleteWow. Thanks for sharing, Changeseeker.
After reading this post I now have a better understanding of what the word quirky means. I have a lot of black females who are my friends who fit this "quirky" persona. I do not think it is because they are trying to conform to anyone, everyone has their own unique characteristics about them. I also feel that we are beginning to see more quirky black girls is because times have changed and different cultures have began to overlap and it is just the style that everyone chooses to wear or act or whatever. I am personally ready and like I said before have friends who are quirky. So I have already embraced the quirky-ness!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, all.
ReplyDeleteRethabile: I agree. I get goosebumps every time I read the Quirky Black Girls' Manifesto. I especially like the line, "wake up ready to wear a tattered society new on our bodies." Oh, yes!
JRoc: I had the same reaction as I read this and realized that I know a number of quirky Black girls. They are all eminently lovable and dazzling-ly outside the box, so it felt good to see them celebrating and celebrated. I had to get on that bandwagon.
word. is. bond.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my house, Browngirl. Drop on by any time. And thank you for reaching out at a moment when I really need to feel connected and reinforced in doing what I do.
ReplyDeleteI positively LOVE this. ^_^
ReplyDeleteYes, indeedy, Cookiefacesally. M.dot is the bomb. Check out her blog.
ReplyDelete