Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman - Age 19 I joined the AUC (Atlanta University Center) Poets' Society in the first semester of my freshman year. Ryan, the guy I was digging at the time, walked me to Trevor Arnett Hall on his campus, Clark Atlanta University, for my first reading rehearsal. It [...]
Tag: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl
If “if” was a fifth, we’d all be drunk.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 17 I borrow my title from the archives of my big sister, Denise (bka Niecy). And from my own archives, a poem from the artist at 17. If only I wasn’t a drama queen. If only I had realized he wasn’t the beginning and ending [...]
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The Iconoclast
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 16 The Iconoclast was our high school literary magazine. The title is also a term that describes people who are different; who attack traditional or cherished beliefs--rebels. I was a member of the Iconoclast editing board, became a contributor in my sophomore year, and hardly [...]
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Race Day
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 15 Race Day--it's not a national holiday. Not even a state holiday. It was an event that was made up to promote race unity in my home county, complete with an essay contest that I'd read about in the local newspaper. I entered and I [...]
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Blueberry Square
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 14 I'm not sure why I was so obsessed with black boys dying in the late 80s and early 90s. It could've been the Philadelphia and Baltimore newscasts my family watched to supplement the local WBOC news. WBOC talked mostly of soybean crops and the [...]
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Wordsoun’ ‘Ave Poweh, or, She Really Was a B#?@&
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 12 Well, she was. All I was trying to do was decide on which ice cream treat I wanted. Yet every time I went into that store no matter how fast I made my purchase or what I purchased, she followed me around the store [...]
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Mrs. Kopay
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 13 She was stylish, had cool handwriting, and she loved Snickers bars. Since they were her favorite, she kept a stash that also served as prizes for good behavior and/or good work. When I was sent to her class in seventh grade I wasn't sure [...]
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Playground Politics
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 11 12 was to be a big year. Soon there would be no more recess; real bras; and the boys would grow up into the kind from our teen novels who danced with the girls and wrote loving notes folded four square; the teachers would [...]
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Harriet Tubman ain’t take no stuff
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 10 My birthday falls on the first day of Black History Month. So it was shortly after I turned 10 that I performed in what became one of my best secular public plays ever (if I do say so myself). I was Harriet Tubman and [...]
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Langston, My Man
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Age 9 Langston Hughes and I go back to fourth grade. Mrs. Slattery's class. That was year I challenged the notion of who, I think, I knew myself to be. I tried to be loud, bold, and whatever else I thought the cool kids were. [...]
darlene anita scott 