Black Girl Rise
I will never speak ill of another Black Woman
Because I know to do so is to acquiesce
To the whims and wishes of white supremacy
Intent on hiding my idols from me
Dead set on robbing this bigness from me
Do you know how I wept
When I found that my instincts had legacy?
Rock and roll? ROCK AND STOLE.
How dare they take them from me
History revised is its own weaponry
For if you don’t see yourself
Than you reach helplessly
With no line to the sky and no roots at your feet
You stare blankly when they tell you, you’re acting “recklessly”
But the music is in me, the music is me
So you clutch at your heart and proceed cautiously
And you doubt and you dig for the courage to see
These dreams through
But the truth is, I found me, when I found you
The melanin at the beginning
Of this “white boy genre”
Manipulated into being a source of trauma
Because as I find you I need to know
WHO THE FUCK STOLE ROCK N ROLL
Why do we not speak their names?
Why do we not give them claim
For what their efforts made grow?
I’ve heard white artists do it
Unapologetically with no constraints
So why’s the culture screwed it
Hyper tragically without restraint
They conclude “Black Girls don’t rock n roll”?
I’m confused, here’s what I will not let go:
They used to call it “Negro Music”
Now only to say that we don’t use it?
But we do! And we did! It was us. We did this.
It was us
We did this
It was us
We did this
It’s for us
To be big
To know with utmost clarity;
If this space is home to you, then this place is home for me
I will never speak ill of another Black Woman
I refuse to try and knock you down
If you fall I will extend a hand
There’s enough love here to go around
Your rise does not threaten me
Your light is a friend to me
I see myself in you.
I see the sky in you.
Bigness. Boldness. Blackness. Shine.
The stars embrace the moon
As you rise.
As we rise?
The mothers whisper, “soon”
And they cry out with pride;
For we heal their sweet Souls, too
Black Girl Rise
Epic highs
Piercing through a millions lies
To decide,
And apprise,
We are worthy of the skies.
We are worthy,
So We Rise.
We are worthy,
So We Rise.
Piercing through a million lies
To take our place
In the skies
We are Worthy
So
We
Rise