On Ledbetter Street in Shreveport
Black Folks kind of love is forgiving, eternal, biting and beautiful. Slavery and Jim Crow made us have to 'eat crow' to stay alive. All the things my mother and father wanted to say but didn't finds its way out of my mouth on a regular and consistent basis.
I scare them with my boldness but I am a prophecy fulfilled.
Mama and Daddy (now deceased), did you really think that your children would let what the white folks or any other folks said or did to you that was disrespectful go unchecked? Yes, God got us but God also gave us some of the tools we need to take care of certain things on our own.
This is a special dedication to my siblings, my mother and father and also to the bloodline I come from, the spirit I came from, traveled through and gave birth to. Nadja would not 'be' without the energy my entire family put out into the universe, through hard work and prayer.
The way I love may be strange sometimes, but good love is good love so just take it and run with it. S---, that's what I do with the love you give to me.
Black love is growing up on Ledbetter Street, having the same home phone number for over 30 years, going to church every Sunday, being a Hollywood High Stepper, swinging on the swing at hattie Perry Park.
I knew I was human growing up on Ledbetter Street. My blackness came second to that until I realized that some folks deemed my blackness as a marker of not being human.
Contradiction or conundrum or whatever...it don't matter... cause my black 'ness' is here... IN YO FACE!
Black love is me, my sister Jerene, my brothers Jethro and Arve, my sister Quintina and everything mama and daddy and grandmamas and grandpapas and auties and uncles and neighbors taught us on Ledbetter Street -- by the way they treated themselves and the way we treated each other.
Black Love is Me!
Peace,
Jolivette
Black Folks kind of love is forgiving, eternal, biting and beautiful. Slavery and Jim Crow made us have to 'eat crow' to stay alive. All the things my mother and father wanted to say but didn't finds its way out of my mouth on a regular and consistent basis.
I scare them with my boldness but I am a prophecy fulfilled.
Mama and Daddy (now deceased), did you really think that your children would let what the white folks or any other folks said or did to you that was disrespectful go unchecked? Yes, God got us but God also gave us some of the tools we need to take care of certain things on our own.
This is a special dedication to my siblings, my mother and father and also to the bloodline I come from, the spirit I came from, traveled through and gave birth to. Nadja would not 'be' without the energy my entire family put out into the universe, through hard work and prayer.
The way I love may be strange sometimes, but good love is good love so just take it and run with it. S---, that's what I do with the love you give to me.
Black love is growing up on Ledbetter Street, having the same home phone number for over 30 years, going to church every Sunday, being a Hollywood High Stepper, swinging on the swing at hattie Perry Park.
I knew I was human growing up on Ledbetter Street. My blackness came second to that until I realized that some folks deemed my blackness as a marker of not being human.
Contradiction or conundrum or whatever...it don't matter... cause my black 'ness' is here... IN YO FACE!
Black love is me, my sister Jerene, my brothers Jethro and Arve, my sister Quintina and everything mama and daddy and grandmamas and grandpapas and auties and uncles and neighbors taught us on Ledbetter Street -- by the way they treated themselves and the way we treated each other.
Black Love is Me!
Peace,
Jolivette
Labels: Black Folk Kind of Loving 'On Ledbetter Street in Shreveport'
posted by Nadja's Mama at 11:39 AM
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