thelmablack

Just cause

Just cause it’s not rated don’t mean it aint good Just cause its uncharted dont mean it’s wothout reward Just cause they don’t like you don’t mean you aint shit See its flying over the cerebral regal one, he say shit like that to me Playing heart attacks and seducing strokes of gratuitous misfortune IContinue reading “Just cause”

About the bathroom

I often feel like the dominance of bathrooms and sports teams in discussing transgender rights is simply to dumb down our movement. There is something so insidious and insulting when the powers that be make our struggles seem so trivial. And this is not to take away the weight of bathrooms or trans athletes. ButContinue reading “About the bathroom”

Queenie : Black British woman gone mad

Queenie by Candice Carty Williams is a riot of a read. It is at once humorous and sad as fuck in many ways. I’d wanted to read it for so long. It’s the first book I read that spoke in the voice of a Black woman from England. I found there to be so manyContinue reading “Queenie : Black British woman gone mad”

Rambling

Someone close to me died recently. Interesting thing that death is. That final act of someone’s life. I think that I prepared myself for a long time for this day. That incessant anxiety of knowing something will happen years before it does. You spend life waiting. So in many ways I prepare for everyone’s deathContinue reading “Rambling”

10 years old

This year I will approach having lived ten years in my truth. That’s a remarkable number to me as they have always been. Like when I acknowledged 6 months and 1 year then 4 years and 7 years and so on. Each bench mark ,it comes back to me that for ten years I haveContinue reading “10 years old”

Temptation or tired trope of “bad” women getting their due

Tyler Perry creations are notorious for their commentary on sexuality and relationships of men and women in the Black community. Familiar anchors of Christian down home wisdom and a “good girls go to heaven” theme dominate his works. His 2013 film Temptation follows the familiar formula down to a tee. The story is told throughContinue reading “Temptation or tired trope of “bad” women getting their due”

The D word

I live with Depression. As I write that I already hear in my head a voice saying “Don’t go there”. I had this weird thought earlier about how I feel in America, there’s this idea of emotion being bad. That one should somehow lessen their emotions, make them palatable to a very dry ass environment.Continue reading “The D word”

This way

It was meant to be this way The arrogance The humble The roars and the rumble Every tear shed, every insult uttered, every fist that flew The solitude The misunderstanding The chanting and the dancing to thine own song she be true Alotta scars and thousands of bruise Bruise on heart and mind, bruise onContinue reading “This way”

Christmas: A time to remember

If I could be 5 again just to enjoy that immense magic both that word and day used to signify to me. It was always bigger than the gifts, Christmas always had this feel. This warm, rich, cozy, decorative , happy feeling that enveloped the rest of the winter with this airiness, with this senseContinue reading “Christmas: A time to remember”

12/20/21

It’s a really weird time to be alive in this world. Everything holds a weight, a meaning , a price tag not equated with money. Currency as more than, as capabilities, as options, as opt-outs. Imagine in 5,10 or 20 years when those movies and tv shows come out about this time, we’ll all imagineContinue reading “12/20/21”