James Weldon Johnson's Masterpiece Takes Beyonce

“Life is nothing but a dream, and if we are artists, then we can create our life with love, and our dream becomes a masterpiece of art”

(Don Miguel Ruiz)

I remember reading James Weldon Johnson’s “The Diary of an Ex-Black Man” and in it he spoke about an experience where he realized he was black and ran home to ask his mother if he really was black because he did not know until a teacher told him.

The innocence in that amazes me. The beauty of his writing thrilled me. The masterpiece of his song that came to be known as “The Black National Anthem” moves me.

He showed people of color that we can lift our voices to be heard because we have identities and we can own our own ambitions to march on being perfectly black even though we labor to open eyes to a vision of being not so different and lovable though we are different simply because our skin colors are not the same.

Beyonce and the fierce fighting woman that she is, proved how the hope that this song has always built in people of color and also provides a a sense of empowerment in using our voices to daily renew the fire within. 

She did it with visual presentations of what reporting to active duty as a soldier in the war for true equality looks like when she levels the playing field and makes black life across the globe know in truth that beauty in identity is not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing when she showcases the beauty of the normal physiology of her skin and sings James Weldon Johnson's song live. Her performance on Coachella resonated with me and I tried to capture my thoughts of it in a poem since it is National Poetry Month. I hope you will read it.  

James Weldon Johnson’s Masterpiece 
Takes Beyonce

Black Woman

Strong Woman

Good Woman

I am Woman

I am Daughter

I am Sister

I am Cousin

I, the Writer

I am Blessed

I Confess

I am Set

I am First

I am History

I Have a Ministry

I the American

I the Woman

I the American Woman

I the Black Woman

I the Strong Black Woman

I who Lift My Voice in Sing

‘Til Earth and Heaven Ring

I’m down with the Kings

Because, I the Queen

I Am the First

To show all the Haters

I Did it

Like a Teacher

Schooling us to own our Blackness

To possess Pride

Of being who you are

In your Blackness

In your status

In your number

Because you are a Number

Because you are in the Number

Because you Are

Because you have an Identity.

Rings with the Harmony

Of Liberty

Like a church bell on Sunday Morning

In Brooklyn

High as the glistening Skies

March on Beyonce.

I respect who you are.

You are Cultural!

You are Strong!

You are Fierce!

You are Black!

You are a Soldier in the Army of God!

And you are Shining Your Light!

Now Even the Young, Gifted and Black Youth will be able to Sing the Black National Anthem

Who may not have known there was a

Black National Anthem

Until they saw Coachella in 2018.

______________________________________________________

Hey speaking of culture.

I wrote a song about the beauty of my family’s culture.

The video does a better job of displaying it though and I hope that you will take a minute to watch my video entitled Saut D’eau Song written and produced by Stephanie Jeannot. Though it only shows bits and pieces of beautiful Haiti, I am glad to have been able to see it with mine own eyes. The beauty in culture moves me. 

Thank you so much for stopping by my page and for taking the time to read my blogpost. Be so wonderfully blessed.