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Jo'Nella Queen: at brown

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.

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