#black girl supremacy

It has been a few months since I’ve posted. I’ve been teaching for the summer in California. I’m going back home to Philadelphia in a week and I’m moving to Atlanta in two weeks.

Android Oshún, the Africana WomaNINJA is back.

Getting to a new normal.

At first I was focused on feeling like “my old self” but I’m learning that there is no going back to her. I’ve faced so many dark times and 2015 and 2016 thus far has been by far the darkest. I never felt pain like this before, and it sent me into a slump of depression. I’m not ashamed to admit that at all. Mental health in Black communities is a serious issue. So many people reading this will probably say “That’s personal. She shouldn’t be sharing that.” Well my response is, if you really knew me you would know that I’m an open book and I believe in expressing my truth no matter how ugly. When I lost my mother, I felt as though I lost pieces of myself. It was very hard for me to explain and articulate it to others. I was graduating from college and was not sure if any of my future goals would become true. I finally went back to therapy to address past sexual trauma and violence. I fell in love, had expectations and was hurt in the worst way possible. I stopped attending church for a period, because I just had no idea who I was or who I was about to become.

Well here I am now and one of my newest friends said to me, “I am so happy to see you grow. You seem so much more confident compared to when I first met you.” That’s so true. The Lord and my ancestors had me doing so much work to try to get to a better standing with MYSELF. I was ready to feel the confidence I used to feel, but this was an evolution. I’ll never be the same again, and this is beautiful because at 24 years old I should never be the same person who I was before.

An 18 year old spoke to me the other day and asked me for advice. She said that she was afraid that she could never get used to the darkness that she has experienced in her life and I told her that she didn’t have to. She said, “How do you cope with the darkness.” I told her that I owned it as my truth. I told her that I took my darkness and asked God and my ancestors to help me channel it into something else… Light. Don’t let my darkness define me or swallow me whole.

1 Samuel 17, Isaiah 60:1 and Job 3:26 helped me.

So I asked for complete darkness, so that when it came time to marvel at God’s grace and goodness, as well as the plan for my life that it would radiate and swallow the darkness right up.

After this discussion with her I had to really think about what I told her. My future is so bright and I’m proud that this African woman now knows that.

I know that people like to focus on how we can protect the bodies of Black women and girls. I am with them. But I also care about doing the work pertaining to protecting Black women and girls from themselves after we failed to protect them from the world’s darkness in the future. How do we keep Black women and girls alive. We want to prevent mental and physical deaths.

Sexual trauma, intimate partner violence, other forms of physical violence, body shaming and sexual shaming are taking years off of us as Black women and girls.

I hear some Black men and women say “So you are trying to teach women and girls how to be hoes?” because I’m teaching them how to be sex positive. I hear some Black men and women say, “So you are trying to push homosexuality onto people” because I affirm LGBTQIA Black people.

I care about Black lives. Period. What keeps our people here longer with us on this planet? Affirmation.

“Aren’t you Christian? What would Jesus do?”

If you have to ask me that question, then I’m almost clear that you don’t know what he would do.

I’m no fool. I’m using African-centered/Afrocentric approaches with other Black women to sex positivity because I know that hypersexuality/ over-sexualization is a theme historically within Blackness.

P.S. Cishet Black men and boys, I’m coming for you next. It’s so crucial and necessary for you to learn this as well.

So everyone, just be ready. Black Futures Matter and I’m here to introduce/add another component to Afrofuturism for Africana people.

My goal was to found a program for magical Black girls that taught them from an African-centered lens and Black Feminist and Womanist framework to be body positive, sex positive, LGBTQ affirming and trauma-informed.

I came to my sister friend Gabrielle Clark & Briana Monique (love y'all) late Feb./ early March and said please join BLM Philly because I have a program idea and it will change and save some lives. They both said yes, took the lead on the program and if all goes well we will have this program in other cities. It’s called #FromOurMothersGarden . It’s inspired by Black Feminist, Ntozake Shange, and her book entitled “Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo” and also Womanist, Alice Walker (In Search of Our Mother’s Garden).

My heart is full. I love you Gab. You kept me informed every step of the way. You are a force, and the leader that Black women and girls need to see.

Daddy just placed my stole on me at our Africology and African American Studies Ngoma graduation ceremony

Africology and African American Studies Graduation Ngoma Ceremony today! This is for mommy! Asé!

Women in Africana Studies be like …

Yasss!!! Asé Queen! Look at this! Look at this Queen! Yas! Africana down… .. I have issues

Un-virtuous men, in search of a “virtuous” woman… Based on your standards, what honestly makes you so worthy?

- Melanie “CoCo” McCoy, Android Oshún, the Africana WomaNINJA

“You think I’ll be the dark sky so you can be the star? [Boy] I’ll swallow you whole.”

- Warsan Shire

Too many Africana women needed for this sort of normalization to take place and root itself in our communities.

#NCBS40 Banquet and the others are from my presentation with two titles “The Erotic as Homeplace: Africana Women Literary Writers’ Interpretations of Sexuality as a Psychological Site of Resistance and Liberation” And “Africana Sex-Positivity: Understanding Hypersexuality, Sexuality as Power, and Consent”

from the “Little Black Girls are from the Future” talk by Melanie McCoy

Asé. Photos by @c0c0shanel

BA in African American Studies (Africology) photos by @c0c0shanel

It has been a crazy journey. My mother fell ill my last two semesters and she passed away in Nov. Even before this time I have went through hell and survived. I give Lord the glory, I look at my ancestors and I look at the sweetness that Oshún has brought to me.

My parents worked so hard to make this day happen for me. Mommy couldn’t be there in the flesh, but as my ancestor she was there in spirit. My father, grandmother, sisters/brothers and boyfriend were so proud. My family and friends supported me 100%. I am so blessed.

More photos will be coming soon (professionally done lol) but yesterday was unforgettable. I was Black Girl Magic. I’m African and I promise to always do for my community just as it has always done for me.

I am because we are! Ubuntu! Asè.

Africana Bae

Woman of the Wata. Asé.

Android Oshún