This selection, chosen by guest editor JJ Rowan, is from an identity polyptych by Tameca L. Coleman (The Elephants 2021).
Am I Black?
I put my hand to the drum,
straddled the woodburned neck,
pounded into the skin whose spine
ran down the center. I wrote my own
message under the rim,
cut and wetted the drumhead,
tightened and tuned the drum.
I wore cowries around my neck
stared into their mouths
and palmed them, ran my fingers
down their teeth.
I tied them on with bells
and danced the Damballa
in my living room. I danced
to CD drummers and rain forest people’s
singing. I danced stories
about moving forward even when the wind
pushes you back. Was it a parable
from my ancestors?
I do not know. I do not
know them.
Meca’Ayo (Tameca L Coleman) is a queer poetry-centric multi-genre writer, singer and artist who currently lives in Denver Colorado. Their writing and photography have been featured in literary magazines, art exhibits, journals, anthologies, and other venues and publications. Their first book, an identity polyptych, a multi-part, multi-genre work that explores familial estrangement, identity as a mixed-race Black person, and movement towards reconciliation, debuted from The Elephants on the Salish Sea Fall 2021.
JJ Rowan is a queer nonbinary poet and dancer whose writing and movement practices have developed largely out of collaborative approaches and the pursuit of deep connection. They are looking for the places where the written line and the lines of the moving body intersect, where genre blurs and remixes and reboots, and where style and role reach maximum fluidity and deeper capacity. Their chapbook, a simple verb, is available from Bloof Books. You can follow their handwriting and movement projects on Instagram.
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