{"id":24739,"date":"2021-03-15T06:07:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=24739"},"modified":"2023-03-15T04:01:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:01:25","slug":"swirl-for-womens-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=24739","title":{"rendered":"Swirl: For Women\u2019s History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Swirl: For Women\u2019s\u00a0 History Month<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Princess Caf\u00e9 au Lait Barbie and Prince Ginger Ken couldn\u2019t do what we have done
United two families\u00a0
The day we were married and our hands met
We were Black and White touching
All these years together
And I have never written you a poem<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Too busy loving \u2014 I guess \u2014 to write about it<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But as I watch Meghan and Harry walk the tight wire between\u00a0
despair and disillusionment
I marvel at what we have done with the love that we have brought into this world
Revolutionary hearts beating revolutionary rhythms
And our breath exhaling revolutionary words
Revelatory hearts surviving the \u201cfor better and for worse\u2019
Inhaling inspiration from the events of the day
And our own lives<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As fearless as veteran warriors
And as ardent as midwives bringing new life into this world
We are not a prince and a princess
We are a King and a Queen<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Think new thoughts by not eating the foods of childhood
From food you get mind
Both our families amazed because we make our pancakes from a mixture of five flours
Adding both cinnamon and ginger powder to the batter
The alchemy of mixing foods\u00a0
And of mixing peoples
Let your table be an altar and all foods be sacramental\u00a0
Because if you know how to mix
The outcome is always astonishing<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We cooked mountains of vegetables from a Wisconsin garden\u00a0\u00a0
And used more onion and garlic then either of our families had ever eaten at one time
Food cooked in houses that didn\u2019t know\u00a0
The smell of clarified butter dancing with cumin and coriander
Brown and gold touching\u00a0
We watched our food disappear\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Everyone always asks for the recipes
But the alchemy of mixing is hard to learn\u00a0
And requires both artistry and skill<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You have to cook the way you live
But Meghan and Harry didn\u2019t cook their own food
And they planned for the wedding day but not for the marriage<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Start the day with conversations and endless cups of chai
The only ritual we do daily, regularly, and sincerely\u00a0
Fresh ginger, peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom, mint and black tea
Everyone always asks for the recipe
But the alchemy of mixing is hard to learn\u00a0
And requires both artistry and skill<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Smash the cake into my face at the wedding party
Or, the women in my family will think you weak
You took me at my word\u00a0
Your Lucille Ball to my Desi Arnaz
Devils food cake covering my face as my Mothers laughed\u00a0
Punctuating their guffaws with
\u201cOh no she didn\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

They called you \u201cTeena Marie\u201d when you pierced your nose\u00a0
To commemorate your mother\u2019s death
And my sister called you sister
Our revelatory hearts \u2014 again \u2014 surviving the better and worse<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Maybe Meghan should have smashed cake into Harry\u2019s face
You have to make space for yourself\u00a0
If you want to live unconventionally<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So Swirl
Swirl down through the Middle Passage
And slavery
Swirl through \u201cHAVE ME MANDINGO!\u201d
Reconstruction
Through Birth of a Nation and the Klan
Swirl through JIm Crow
The Civil Rights Movement
And marches on Washington
Swirl through Blaxploitation Movies\u00a0
Through Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman
Through Baps, Bohos, and Buppies
Swirl through\u00a0 Obama\u00a0
and through Kamala
Swirl through Black Lives Matter
Swirl through the Zoom age replacing words on the printed page<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Marriage IS a political statement<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Swirl Helen Pitts and Fredrick Douglas;
Jessie Walmisley and\u00a0 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor;
Etta Terry Duryea and Jack Johnson\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Swirl Louisa Matthews and Louis George Gregory;
Josephine Baker and Jean Lion;
Ruth Williams and Seretse Khama\u00a0
You were Meghan and Harry before Meghan and Harry\u00a0
Were a gleam in their parents eyes<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Swirl Pearl Bailey and Louie Bellson;
Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving \u2014 and thank you;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Swirl Grace Lee Boggs and and James Boggs;
Swirl Billy Porter and Adam Smith;
Swirl George Takei and Brad Altman Takei;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Swirl for the Wakandas that have already been and are yet to come
Love in Black and White
Love in Lavender
Rainbow Love
Black Love
Brown Love
And all The\u00a0 loves that now dare to speak their names<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This is for Hettie Cohen and her husband Leroi Jones before he became Amiri Baraka\u00a0
For Lena Horne and Lennie Hayton
Diana Ross, Robert Ellis Silberstein, and Arne N\u00e6ess:\u00a0
Two scoops for Miss Ross!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And all of the other swirl couples too numerous to mention
Which is the point.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Walk seven times around the sacred fire with me and make a promise with each circumambulation
For earth, water, fire, air and space.
For self-actualization\u00a0
and for transcendence<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Wed on the day winter becomes spring\u00a0
On a Venus\u2019 day
And at the hour of the unconquerable
Our friends asked what the attire would be\u00a0
And we said:
Come as you will be for the rest of our lives\u00a0
And the lifetimes to come
Everyone always asks for the recipe
But the alchemy of mixing is hard to learn\u00a0
And requires both artistry and skill<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Keep thinking:
It can be stopped at the border
Or with gated communities
It can be lynched out of existence
It can be gerrymandered
Or put into interment camps\u00a0
Or stifled by anti-miscegenation laws\u00a0
With 7 states still requiring racial disclosures on marriage certificates\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

No one is coming to get you
We are you!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Red hair and creamy skin are genetically recessive\u00a0
Which is why they asked how dark the children would be
Meghan and Harry \u2014 a reversed living Bridgerton
AND HE BURNS FOR HER!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That the answers to our questions and concerns lie on a the path less traveled\u00a0
Is \u2014 perhaps \u2014 the greatest fear of people who think\u00a0
That salt, black pepper, and sugar\u00a0
Are the only spices there are.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

By Heidi Lindemann and Michael Perry<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

(Image Credit: Sol Lewitt: “Swirl Platter”)<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swirl: For Women\u2019s\u00a0 History Month Princess Caf\u00e9 au Lait Barbie and Prince Ginger Ken couldn\u2019t do what we have doneUnited two families\u00a0The day we were married and our hands metWe were Black and White touchingAll these years togetherAnd I have never written you a poem Too busy loving \u2014 I guess \u2014 to write about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6336,6337],"class_list":["post-24739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-heidi-lindemann","tag-michael-perry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26973,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739\/revisions\/26973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}