Amani O+ Bday update

Hey Fam 🤎 👋🏾

Today’s my birthday. 🌻

i’ve been reflecting a lot on this past year.

Honestly, the best gift i’ve given myself is sobriety.🖤

For a long time weed was woven into everything —
before meals,
before work,

at work,
after work,
before a walk,

on the walk,
after a walk.

i really believed i needed it to move through the world.

Turns out…
i don’t.

 

** gasps ** 😮‍💨

Choosing sobriety has started to feel like an act of decolonization for me.

a way of honoring
my ancestors,
my body,
and the purpose i feel pulling on my life.

Another thing i’m focusing on this year is self-confidence.

cuz real talk…

i love my music down.
i adore my poetry.

the work is FIRE. 💥

But i still catch myself shrinking when people compliment me.

Still catching myself wondering
if i’m worthy of the path opening in front of me.

Insecurity isn’t just personal — it’s political.

Misogynoir and anti-Blackness work overtime to erode our

self-determination.

They teach us to doubt ourselves,
To shrink our brilliance,
To question our right to take up space!

So this year i’m practicing seeing and holding myself clearly.

Moving with the legacy i come from! 🌟

"A lineage of self-determiners.
Maroons.
abolitionists.
rebels"

People who chose to live free or die.

Charlene A. Carruthers writes all of this in

Unapologetic - A Black Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements 💫

She says that our movements need griots 🗣️

People using many mediums to clarify and expand the stories of the Black radical tradition.

That’s what i’m doing with bars and prose.

Our people’s history of resistance is deeper and more expansive than most of us were ever taught.

Even though it has served as a model for liberation struggles across the world.

So i’m telling those stories. 💪🏾

And also the story of becoming myself.

In the midst of all this ... 
fascism rising,
the world feeling ever uncertain

My own path actually feels clearer than it ever has.

The political education happening through the B.L.A.C.K. Label
and thru the Movement 4 Black Lives 
is sharpening my analysis and feeding my spirit in ways i’m endlessly grateful for.

And it’s reminding me that culture work is critical to movement.

Artists Against Apartheid? ✊🏾

i’m sooo ready.

Put me in, coach❗️

If you want to support the music, poetry, and the process of becoming,
i’ve been sharing a lot of the work through my Patreon.

There’s even a free tier 👀
so you can peep the goods and get a lil taste. The lowest paid tier starts at $3 (cheaper than a roundtrip MTA fare!) 

It’s a place where you can catch the work while it’s still forming ... 
vulnerable,
unfinished,
becoming. 🧚🏽‍♀️

And honestly,
in a time when so many forces are trying to erase and silence Blaqueer TGNC artists telling the truth,

supporting the work is its own kind of resistance.

If that speaks to you,
come thru!

With Love & Immeasurable Gratitude,
amani 🤎 🙏🏾