{"id":3970,"date":"2019-04-18T19:53:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T19:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2019-04-18T20:02:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:02:37","slug":"porsha-olayiwolas-transparent-poetry-about-blackness-sexual-identity-and-body-image-deserves-your-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/porsha-olayiwolas-transparent-poetry-about-blackness-sexual-identity-and-body-image-deserves-your-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Porsha Olayiwola\u2019s Transparent Poetry About Blackness, Sexual Identity, And Body Image Deserves Your Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Porsha Olayiwola | The Boston Globe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston\u2019s newly appointed poet laureate, Porsha Olayiwola, has had quite the journey as a Black queer poet. In an interview with Essence<\/a>, the 30-year-old recalled how she used a particularly disheartening and insensitive comment at her first poetry reading as fuel to write honest poetry about blackness and identity. <\/b><\/p>\n

The remark, which had nothing to do with her poetry and everything to do with the superficial, was made by a white man. \u201cDon\u2019t be offended when I tell you this, but you look like Biggie Smalls,\u201d he said. \u00a0Olayiwola told Essence that it wasn\u2019t until five years later that she fully came to terms with his comment and processed her feelings through a poem she calls \u201cBlack & Ugly As Ever,\u201d which hints at the lyric in Biggie\u2019s \u201cOne More Chance\u201d and speaks on the poet\u2019s perception of identity, blackness, being queer, and body image. However, this poem was only the beginning. <\/b><\/p>\n

Last fall, she performed \u201cBlack & Ugly As Ever\u201d as a 45-minute choreopoem, influenced by Ntozake Shange\u2019s radical <\/b>For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf <\/i><\/b>choreopoem. Olayiwola has now performed in a few U.S. cities, and the feedback received has been humbling, validating, and \u201calmost overwhelming.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cTalking about what it means to be fat and to identify as fat with other women made me realize how validated I felt,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been both great and and confidence booster. But it\u2019s also caused me to think about what it means to be pretty.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Perhaps one of her most well-known poems is \u201cAngry Black Woman,\u201d which was written shortly after moving to Boston. In the spoken word poem, which won her the championship at the 2014 IWPS Finals, she furiously spoke out against the broken education systems, impossible beauty standards, poverty, gentrification, and countless more societal issues. Often exploring blackness, homophobia, and more within the lines of her poetry, Olayiwola speaks a certain type of truth that is birthed from her own life experiences. <\/b><\/p>\n

Today, the poet is completing a three-year MFA program at Emerson College. <\/b>She told Essence that this year, she wishes to examine how science fiction and the Black experience can be poetically combined. \u201cBe it magic, or fantasy, or everyday practice of real-life experience, it\u2019s important to visualize yourself living, surviving and thriving in a world and a space that was inherently built for your success,\u201d she said. <\/b><\/p>\n

Her first collection of poetry, called <\/b>I Shimmer Sometimes, Too<\/i><\/b>, will be released in November through Button Poetry. To stay up to date with Porsha Olayiwola, please visit her website at <\/b>porshaolayiwola.com<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Source:\u00a0ESSENCE.COM.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n