at brown, i learned how to be black
and of the intersectional-
multilingual-diasporic beauty
strength and power we hold.
-
we were never meant to prance
around this campus
carefree
tickled with serenity
-
shout whisper
soulful melodies and
serenades
-
or dance
-
at brown I learned how to be black
how to dance
-
and that this place was not built for
us but by people who
look like us.
That this was after this land
was
taken
from our Wampanoag
and Narragansett
brothers and sisters
that this place was sustained by
investments in the China Trade
-
we were never meant to lie on the
grass and take in the sun
carefree
glistening
sharing our life stories
-
and just breathe
-
I didn’t know or truly understand the
value of community
And
Home away home
Until I looked in your eyes
And felt you see me
-
at brown, i learned how to be black
to find God, myself and love Her
fiercely
-
we were never meant to
you were never meant to
I was never meant to
-
And yet we’re here
We have
And this is as much of a beginning as
an ending
-
at brown I’ve learned that it’s hard to
be a student
To be
Black Brown Yellow Red
Scholar
Daughter,
Sister in Christ,
And that friendship is both easy
and trying and
that love is love is love and comes in so many forms
-
and that I deserve it.
Jo’Nella Queen is a Multiracial Puerto Rican American Afro-Indígina poet-scholar-activist among other things. She is leaving Brown, but Queen will keep writing, laughing, healing and resisting.