Speaking Truth to Empower: Celebrating Sojourner Truth, Jill Scott and Me

This morning, I listened to Sojourner Truth’s, “Ain’t I A Woman?" and Jill Scott’s, “Womanifesto.”  I would classify both poems as Feminist (and possibly Womanist) literature.  Although both poems were written in two different time periods, in one way or another, Truth and Scott reference: physical strength/sexuality, intellect/politics and God/ and/or Christ.  I can appreciate the way each woman spoke from her particular vantage point.  

 

 *Painting by Barry Moser

In my twenty-four years of living, I have learned that we women possess an innate and kind of immense power.  I searched the annals of my many journals, and in the company of Sojourner Truth, Jill Scott and many other women writers… I share a glimpse of my power—with you. 

manifesto

there is a man

who rejoices

at the notion

that God

may be a woman

there is a man

who asks a woman

what she is thinking

before asking what

she is wearing

there is a man

who does not feel like

her sex owes

him something

there is a man

who is not made

the least bit

uncomfortable

by the length of her
locks nor the

ambit of her afro

there is a man

who knows that

her shape

does not

determine

her feminine

value

there is a man

who knows that b-i-t-c-h

never has been

and never will be

a synonym

for woman

December 2009