Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Bang, Lexus P. Davis

SURGE

I am afraid
Your black skin. My skin. Our skin is one skin.
A skin that say Bullseye.
Shoot.
I am innocent.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I am waiting for someone to notice that we are dead.

[excerpt]

Heroísmo Y Conciencia Racial En La Obra De La Poeta Afro-Cubana Cristina Ayala, Maria A. Aguilar

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the poetry of Cuban writer Cristina Ayala emphasizing the political value of her use of a rhetoric of heroism, a discursive device that masks her demands for recognition of women’s rights and those of Afro-Cubans. The analysis of her poetry suggests that the symbolic manipulation of the “hero” and the representation of “colored” women as intellectuals and “heroes” expressed her desire to intervene in the public arena. By positioning herself within a political discourse that reconstructed slavery’s past, she narrated the revolutionary vicissitudes and created a utopian vision of the future for the Afro-Cuban community. Ayala expresses …

I Am Me, Vanessa C. Martinez

SURGE

You say my accent is interesting It shows I’m not you I don’t understand your words even though I grew up knowing I am me and you are you I guess what I’m saying is well, what do you mean? When you say that my accent is interesting Are you trying to get to know me or assign me an identity? Is the nopal que tengo en la frente a symbol too ambiguous to fully convince you? When you’re unsure, do my words comfort you? Because they are connected to the deserts and the cacti that are linked to the …

Carter, Lillie Mae (Bland), 1919-1982 (Mss 558), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 558. This collection documents native Kentuckian Lillie Mae (Bland) Carters’ work as a poet and public school teacher in Toledo, Ohio. It includes correspondence, publications, unpublished poems, and printed material pertinent to her educational career and achievements. Of particular note is a folder of letters and autographs from African American poet Langston Hughes.