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do not be afraid to love. to be loved.
Welcome Stranger
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
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in love. there is no better way to live.
Tunnel Shock
we spoke into existence
a war/
neither of us chose
bloodshed/
but i cannot remove the stain.
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do not unload your love until you have reached home safely.
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the poet’s responsibility: to write what the heart cannot fathom. what the mind cannot tolerate. what the spirit is not willing.
happy independence day ghana.
55 years in the making.
After Elmina
After a tour through Elmina slave castle, I needed to write down EXACTLY what I was feeling, thinking, processing. This is the result:
I am heavy with the burden of my ancestors. To be broken. To be psychologically and physically beaten down. To be called less than. To be called out of your name. To have your skin determine your fate. Your death. To go through the “Door of No Return”. To not return. To pray to God. To return. To be chained to a weight. To be publicly humiliated because you decided to say no. To be broken. They tried to break them. Because black is unknown. Because black is filth. To be raped.
Because you were defenseless. You were defenseless. There is a heaviness embedded in Elmina. It sings a screeching lullaby. It is dancing in the dark. Sweet blood that was lost. That was strained. Tell this history to be strong. To stay strong. Tell this history to understand. Tell this history because you do not understand. Tell this history to unsettle. To learn how to forgive. How to love. How to say “never again”.
Never again will she be led through the governor’s back door into his bedroom. Never again will be pray his flesh rotten, so he’ll live a different story. We rest in knowing that our ancestors have endured. Therefore we endure. Therefore we fight. Therefore we rebuke all evil. Love all that is good and forgive all that spew hatred. So we depart. We live in expectation that hope has met us. Will meet us. Forever.
We, the living, vow to uphold this.
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Until the lion has had its historian, the hunter will always be a hero.
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it will all get better. (keep this on repeat)
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About
Tonya Simone Ingram is a rising junior at New York University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Social Justice Education Through the Arts. She has been fortunate to perform at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, the Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston, MA and in Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Recipient of the 2009-2010 President’s Service Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Arts, Performance, and Media Award, the 2010 New York Cares Volunteer Extraordinaire Award and the BBVA Leader of Tomorrow Award. She has represented NYU at the 2010 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational and at the 2011 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational at the University of Michigan, earning the title for the 2010-2011 NYU Grand Slam Champ, where the team placed third in the nation. In addition she has represented herself at the New York Knicks Poetry Slam during 2010 and 2011. In 2011, she placed 1st winning a $10,000 scholarship and is also a member of the 2011 Urban Word -NYC poetry slam team that placed 2nd in the nation at the Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Festival in San Francisco, CA. She is a NY Cares volunteer who is ready to travel the world and believes that every breath is a second chance.
hello.
