BIO
Melania-Luisa Marte is a Black poet and speaker from New York living in the Dominican Republic. Marte's poetry explores many subjects including her Caribbean roots, Black feminism, and self-love. Her current writing project is exploring Black preservation through land cultivation, herbal-ism, and naps as a bridge to connect to ancestral knowledge.
You can find out more about her at melanialuisa.com or follow her journey on Instagram at @sheismela.
Being an Afro-descendant will always be my greatest accomplishment. There is no success greater than being Black in the past, present and future. We (the African Diaspora) are walking miracles. Our resilience moves me to tears. What an honor it is to be a Black woman. What a maddening joy it is to uncover the endless fountain of gifts my ancestors have held onto for me. Without them, I am simply an unrealized seed. They dreamt me up.
For Breonna Taylor
After
Claude McKay ‘If We Must Die’
if she must die,
let it be in a dream so illustrious
she never wakes up.
let it be resting from all the contracting
of this worn body.
let her heart not beat with the panic
of a bullet wound.
let it be still as the first day of May.
may her body be more than a thing to escape.
if she must die,
give her a canopy with hibiscus flowers
at
the bed of her feet.
soak her swollen hands in lavender oil.
let
her knees and chest bend
in
her favorite childlike pose.
let her mama hum her back inwards
play her that lovely homecoming song.
if
she must die, say her name.