Poetry
Lady Brion
Lady Brion “I talk Black”
Source: Published on YouTube by “Write About Now”
Brion’s poetry portrays a critical outlook on society. For instance, she maintains that religion and the Church influence her writing. In her feature in The Atlantic, Brion mentioned that “Jesus was a freedom fighter…The cops came to arrest Jesus, and dragged him off and executed him. I don’t know how much more in tune with today’s time we can get” (Green, 2017). Brion’s work carries the overpowering essence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Her most famous spoken word, “I talk Black” dives into the authenticity of Blackness as Brion declares, “The rhythm in my diction sounds like a warcry.” She urges the listener to think about the responsibility individuals have towards their community and ends the poem with an affirmation: “There is a Black anthem inside my belly so I will always lift every voice and speak.”
“There is a Black anthem inside my belly so I will always lift every voice and speak.”
Lady Brion describes herself as “an international spoken word artist, poetry coach, activist, organizer, and educator” (Brion, 2018). Brion is an alumnus of Howard University and the University of Baltimore and uses her education for teaching as well as non-profit civic engagement endeavors like organizing poetry workshops. She works with the Baltimore-based organization “DewMore” which conducts art-based workshops and educational events in partnership with schools and other institutions in the community to promote change and development within the historically marginalized people in the city. Brion has received major local and international recognition for her work, her most recent accomplishment winning the Women of the World Poetry Slam Championship in 2021.
Brion published her first book, With My Head Unbowed, in 2018. The book is a creative combination of textual and auditory work that deals with the “unapologetic” themes of “family, women empowerment, and the Black experience” (Brion, 2018). Along with her activism, Lady Brion’s poetry itself is political in nature. She believes that “Poetry creates a unique opportunity to galvanize and unify people…Poetry shows us the universality of the human experience by allowing us to see similarities more than differences as we share stories and frustrations…a poet and their work can reflect the audience in which it is being read before. That is affirming because as an audience member it means that we are seen, we are recognized, and we are not alone” (Yoes, 2022).
Lady Brion Witchy
Source: YouTube