Sisters (for Gwendolyn Brooks & Ntozake Shange)

by MAHOGANY L. BROWNE



Me and you be sisters

We be the same

Me and you both leaned

Against Bay Area skylines

Flirted our children's smiles

Like tremors across our hips

Danced like everyone was watching

Cuz they was and still are

Look at them, all nosey

Like they aint never seen

a world spin b4



Me and you be sisters

We be the same

Kinky hair mud child

Same jazz and funk fall from our lips

Same want for slick talking man

He fall smooth up under this jazz

Our black find a hum in every girl throat

Same black girl's kink up clean

Same colored girls

All different colors of girl



Me and you be sisters

We be Bklyn, We be the same

Colored girl

Black girl, color

We be swirling our fingers

Twisting our ideas into shiny and new

We know of the wreckage

Of the women that quake into breaks

We be loving that break

We be loving that break & tide

We love a man unafraid of all this wet,

look how he stroll

A messiah

Look at him

A metaphor for stay

And protect

And sex

And we love him so loud

He laugh and crack thunder



We be the same

Daughters heart still heavy on our hips

Her legs butter smooth & strong,

like we built her into marble and stone



She walk tenement troubles across our minds

She keep our skyline in flames,

We check in

We break

We check in

We bend for this color

And this color don't give to the bend

So our mind bend into lizards

Into 8000 different centipedes

Into coasts of wine and wind



We be Paris and Brooklyn

We be josephine liliane gwendolyn shange girl



We be enough

We be enough

We been enough



We be Momma's

mothering a world

Holding sandstorms

between our teeth

(Mshogany L. Browne © 2010)

Mahogany L. Browne - Article

Upcoming Poetry Gigs - Get yo Swag in Person!!

Thursday May 13, 2010
Still Waters Open Mic
8-10:15 pm
Taste of Art Café, 4701 W. Lisbon Ave.
20-minute feature with one encore piece to close the night


Friday May 14, 2010
Voltage! Teen Spoken Word Series
6 – 8:30
Centennial Hall of Milwaukee Public Library, 733 N. Eighth St.
20-minute feature


Saturday May 15, 2010
Urban Spoken Word
7-9pm
Genna’s, 101 Main St. / Madison, WI

Saturday May 22, 2010
Kitchen Series
830pm
Mike McGee's House, Mass

Sunday May 23, 2010
Lizard Lounge
9pm
Boston, Mass

Thursday May 27, 2010
Stamford High School
6pm
Stamford, CT

Saturday, May 30, 2010
Art Sanctuary: Tribute to Nikki Giovanni
11am Panel
2pm Workshop
Performance
Temple U
Philadelphia, PA

Swag

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http://poetcd.com/index.php?item=290

FormSpring Question: My First.

As of late it has doubled. So 20 inquiries. And half of that with full submissions. The best way to understand what Penmanship publishes, is to look at the catalog. Alot of people just send in their manuscript and are surprised when there is no response. Email inquiries are the best way to begin a conversation.

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15 Books to Read

15 books...Share

"Don't take too long. Select fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. Copy the instructions into your own note & tag fifteen friends, including me please, as I'm interested in seeing what books my friends who like books choose. to copy maryann, i'm a nerd. and nerds need to know..."

I rarely (if ever) do these Facebook meme things, but I can knock this one out without thinking, so...

In no particular order:

1. Push - Sapphire
2. Drown - Junot Diaz
3. Deals w/The Devil & Other Reasons to Riot -- Pearl Cleage
4. Towelhead - Alicia Erian
5. Going Down - Jennifer Belle
6. Fledling - Octavia Butler
7. Prisoner's Daughter - Asha Bandele
8. Baby Love - Rebecca Walker
9. Miles (Autobiography) - Quincy Troupe
10. House on Mango Street - Sandra Ciscernos
11. Autobiography of Maclom X - Malcom X
12. Black Girl in Paris - Shay Youngblood
13. Lucky - Alice Sebold
14. Dark - Kenji Jasper
15. Good Bones & Other Simple Murders - Margaret Atwood

Bonus
16. Lilith's Brood - Triology - Octavia Butler
17. Coldest Winter Ever - Sister Souljah
18. The Way Forward is w/a Broken Heart - Alice Walker
19. 3 - Julie Hilden
20. Doom Fox - Iceberg Slim

Swag. Released April 1, 2010

SWAG
New Book of Poems by Mahogany L. Browne
Artwork by Amanda Mathews
Released April 1, 2010
Penmanship Books

If you like me.
You will like this.

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check me out! (CLICK ABOVE)


From the Forthcoming book:
SWAG (penmanship books.com)