BIO
Afro-Boricua poet Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez graduated with a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and is a 2016 VONA Voices Alumna, working under award-winning poet Willie Perdomo. She currently performs spoken-word poetry in the greater Washington D.C. area, having previously performed in other parts of the U.S., such as Philadelphia and Miami, and internationally in the Dominican Republic. Tatiana has been published in Public Pool and Spillwords.
La Negra
“You’re Scary Spice,”
Says the golden-haired girl.
The one labeled Scary
Stays silent.
A third little girl
Strings her words
To win the role
Of Baby Spice
And the golden girl
Becomes Ginger.
The three play
Singing and dancing
Just to repeat it all
The next day.
20 years
pass,
The one
labeled Scary
Stares back
at me.
Her
honey-toned coils
Highlight
her face
And
complement
Her
sand-freckled
Hands
& feet.
Her
light brown eyes
Scream
I’m
surviving the struggle.
The
struggle of
Raising
my badass brother,
Working
for a fucked up
Education
system,
And
trying to love myself,
All
while learning
How to
bend my knee & walk again.
The one labeled Scary
Is now a free mermaid,
Swimming
In a ten-feet deep ocean
With the golden-haired girl,
Who is quickly called away
By her golden-haired father.
“My father said I can’t play with
niggas”
Is all she says.
Salty tears
Disappear
Into chlorine-fused waves
As the one labeled Scary
Sinks deeper
Drowning her body.
Echoes of Papa saying
“You are not a nigga”
Rip through each ripple.
A scar
squats
On her
chin’s right side,
Downward
turned lips
Carry
the weight of loss,
And a
Deathly Hallows tattoo
Attempts
to protect her
From the
curse of being a nigga.
The Bronx,
The Boogie Down
Full of boogeymen
Is the one labeled Scary’s
Home again,
Where the Nuyorican,
Street culture
Shapes her,
But the images of
Mami and Abuela
Challenge her.
They are light
Like the color of coquito.
Their hair doesn’t need any heat.
If they are Puerto Rican,
Then she is the negra of the
block.
The
moonlight pours down.
She
oozes with magic
As her hair
defies gravity.
Cheeks
are soft.
No hard
edges.
Her gaze
tender
And
present.
The one
labeled Scary
Is not
Scary.
The one
labeled Scary
Is not a
nigga.
Negra,
You are Puerto Rican.