Ars Poetica As Another Dashiki Problem and The Problem With Keyana are liberation narratives that examine Black girls’ early experiences that can influence how much agency they have or don’t get to have over the experiences. By Darlene Anita Scott By Darlene Anita Scott • Originally published on Stonecoast Review Issue 10 • Keyana is in kindergarten but she doesn’t dance like it. Quick learner and a gifted mimic, can drop into a split without so much as blinking her eyes. Keyana is in kindergarten and her naked knees show it—darkened and thick with tales of her adventures. Keyana is w ..read more

Ars Poetica As Another Dashiki and The Problem With Keyana (coming soon) are liberation narratives that examine Black girls’ early experiences that can influence how much agency they have or don’t get to have over the experiences. By Darlene Anita Scott By Darlene Anita Scott • Originally published on Stonecoast Review Issue 10 • The girls we grew from are bamboo, persistent hallelujahs determined to reach the gods. We are zils of Fulani hammered brass, punctuating the slow turn of necks that follows the eyes in our heads with deliberate precision. Latifah acolytes we rip cellophane f ..read more

A poem that centres on infertility and the pressure for Black African women to be fertile for society’s needs. The poet persona realises that her powers of creation are solely hers to use as she desires. The Riverkeeper by Blessing Ahuoyiza Oziama By Blessing Ahuoyiza Oziama • Content warning: Mentions of harm towards children • I will not turn away from what my hands have made I will not shrink away from what Eleduwa’s hands have made. (for, wondrous are They, those glorious mighty measurers) Tomorrow I will retrace my steps earthward but tonight is for me to carry the leaking boat o ..read more

“My naysayers wonder how I became so blessed. How I went from zero to hero like I have an S on my chest. I say, “It’s the magnificence of my mind.” I say, “It’s in the patience of my time.” I say, “It’s the provision in my hand.” I say, “It’s my trust in God’s outstanding plan.” I’m a woman, miraculously, an unprecedented, superb woman.” – Desiree McCray Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” By Desiree McCray • Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” • Skinny women wonder from where did my confidence emerge. Why don’t I feel the need to binge and then purge? I say, “It’s ..read more

 Painting by Renata Hall By Renata Hall • Written in March 2023 • A painting alongside a poem, that represents that constant self development and imposter syndrome that Black women live within; an ode to myself and other Black women, constantly within the binds of understanding the self in the present and longing for the future, this poem was produced to encourage myself and other Black women to be content and fed by themselves in the now. • Tell me… When will you fall in love with the actuality of me, as deeply as you have fallen in love with my potential? Listen, I get it I too ..read more

“I was fed up with this narrative that “pretty hurts” and that femininity equaled discomfort, pain, and tension. I always felt like I owed the world “femininity”, but interestingly, the world owed me nothing back, especially as a Black woman.” – Naima Cooper By Naima Cooper • Originally published on Black, Human, and Free • While my decision in the moment felt impulsive and wrong, as I reflect, it was neither of those things. This was something I’d been considering for a while, but I always feared I’d lose much more than my hair. I feared I’d lose community, desirability, and sense of ..read more

“During a cost of living crisis, recession, and multiple humanitarian struggles, bombarding Black women with the desire for luxurious lifestyles plays into the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Luxury is in tandem with capitalism and the violence that it allows to function.” – Khadijah Hayden By Khadijah Hayden • Is celebrating Black women for openly asserting themselves into elitist and white-dominated spaces really the flex we think it is? For a few years the discourse on “Black Girl Luxury” has been prevalent on social media, especially Twitter and TikTok. A recent Essence ar ..read more

“It was the process of realizing and the process of caring as much as it was the ‘actual’, physical work that constituted a job. The Combahee River Collective was already doing a ‘job’ in articulating the importance of realizing and caring about themselves, their sisters, their community, and their potential for liberation. Their choice to love, indeed, was labor. Every word written, every word thought, every second of time devoted to such thought, was and is labor. Labor as in work, as in job, as in action and thought, as in care, as in life-power. Yes, this is my strongest association ..read more

In Essence by Atigré Xia By Atigré Xia • In Essence is a 3D sculpture and composition capturing the heavy emotion of grief, shame, and mercy in a Black woman looks to the heavens hoping to be forgiven for the eternal sin of imperfection society places on her. In Essence by Atigré Xia In Essence by Atigré Xia In Essence by Atigré Xia No longer is the Black Martyr, the mother Mary, the woman that gives all of who she is in order to be loved, supported, protected, and often times none of these things. By creating space for Black women to be seen and humanized, we are creat ..read more

Jessica Gressa By Stephanie Younger • When she was a teenager, Andréa Butler noticed that many of the widely acclaimed magazines she avidly read—such as Seventeen, YM, and Teen People—failed to represent Black girls and acknowledge the issues they face growing up. As much as she enjoyed reading these magazines, Butler, then 17, was frustrated that the people in the magazine didn’t look like her. So she decided to start a magazine that centers Black girls. After graduating from UNC Greensboro with her Bachelor’s in English and from Kent State University with her Master’s in magazine jour ..read more