Welcome

Welcome home, cojourners. I'm glad you're here for another episode. I'm Dr. Tama, licensed

psychologist, ordained minister and sacred artists here to help facilitate your journey back home

to yourself. And we're going to start this week as we do every week with a poem. And this piece

is called upbeat.

Who will sing an upbeat Black Girl song?

Songs of now and laters and bus passes.

Songs of name brand jeans and name brand shoes and name brands branded in search of a place

where everybody knows her name.

Who will sing an upbeat Black Girl song? Songs of the intercourse of hip-hop beats

and gospel hymns, caught in the act, caught in her throat, songs of blues notes and Bible

verses running marathons in her head from late night Friday all the way to Sunday school.

Who will sing an upbeat Black Girl song? Songs of cones and purms and picks in

search of themselves. Who will sing an upbeat black girl song because the downbeat says,

the downbeat says she's so black and lazy and slack? And the downbeat says, the downbeat says,

she's a video ho and of course academically

slow. But who will sing an upbeat black girl song? We will sing it for ourselves. We will sing it

for ourselves. We will put our souls in our throats, in our hearts and our lungs and sing of our

survival. And the world will marvel at how long we hold our notes.

Hold it like Harriet held it.

Hold it like Sojourner held it.

Hold it like Phyllis Wheatley held it.

...