Everything Here
The Black Poets series, a weekly feature on Konya Shamsrumi's website, introduces poets of African origin to new audiences through original biographies and samples of their work. Usani follows in the footsteps of previous curators Richard Ali, author of "The Anguish and Vigilance of Things" (2019), and Star Zahra, known for "Dance of Dawn" (2018).
I read the entire compendium of Shakespeare’s sonnets in junior high school, not having the slightest idea what he was talking about in most of them, but loving the sounds and the mathematical arrangements of the words. Love Is Not Love (sonnet cxvi) is still a favourite. At the peak of my identity crises when I started to terribly fear that I did not belong and perhaps never would, I discovered Emily Dickinson. And there she was, speaking to my spirit. In the same way that the Psalms did which was a powerful crutch for me as I was estranged from religion at the time.
But I picked up the pieces, one by one, And slowly learned to let the healing begin. I found solace in the silence, and peace in the night, And slowly, I started to shine with new light.
I remember always turning back in the car when we pass a particular sculpture and I remember the sculpture, "a woman with long breasts breastfeeding a child". That sculpture was intriguing to me as a child