A Black Girl’s Symphony

A symphony is a story.

Out of the many titles I hold: sister, storyteller, friend, daughter, and aunt — the one I have worked the hardest to understand is Black Woman. 

While family roles are more defined and job titles come with prescribed responsibilities and tasks, I have spent my life attempting to define what Black Womanhood meant both to me and for me. This story encapsulates that journey. Each piece represents a phase of my life that brought me to my now —  to my understanding that “Black woman” is one of the most important titles I will ever hold. This book commemorates a journey to wholeness, self-celebration, and an understanding of my place in this Black Girl continuum. 

In the process of writing this book, I realized that it was already written —in the drafts of my Medium account, in the notes of my iPhone, and in the sloppy Post-it notes filling the inside covers of dozens of books from Black women poets and authors. All I had to do was dig and collect and recollect. And at its inception, this book made me realize that not only can you not solely define Black womanhood by our victory over adversity, you cannot define it at all. Because it is everything. 

Black womanhood is love and heartbreak, war and peace, oppression and triumph, and everything in between. It is treble and bass; percussion and woodwinds; arpeggios and sonatas; adagio and allegro. A true symphony.

I hope this book fills you with every ounce of joy it gave to me.