The Urban Echelon “Black Excellence Talent Spotlight” is
designed to showcase young professionals and their talent. This “Black
Excellence Talent Spotlight” goes to Alyssa Gant a native of Atlanta, GA and a current student at Stillman College.
How do you define black excellence?
Black excellence is about owning your heritage and
prospering in a system that is designed to keep us stagnant. Black excellence
is not so much about tangible things such as money, cars, and clothes but about
having wealth of the mind and soul. People should be able to feel your
brilliance when you walk into a room. In general, I define black excellence as
resilient, empowering, courageous, intellectual, loving, and beautiful.
How long have you been doing your talent?
I have been writing poetry since elementary school.
However, It wasn't until the 9th grade, in my American Literature
class, that I discovered my potential.
What initially drew you to your talent?
Poetry always came naturally for me. Whenever I felt
the need to express myself I would pick up a pen and write. It’s somewhat of a
paradox but I lose myself in poetry just to be found over and over again.
What makes you and/or your talent unique?
I am unique because I march to the beat of my own
drum. We live in a society where celebrities set the trends that influence the
way people dress, think, and behave. I have always had a rebellious spirit. I
deliberately choose to be myself and I am not afraid to do what works for me. I
realized, at a very young age, that authenticity is way more valuable than
imitation.
Royal
By: Alyssa Gant
I wonder what would happen if WE. BOUNCE. BACK
Like the elasticity of elastic bands being stretched by
heavy hands
Lassoing nappy strands running amuck like wild stallions
We, are wild ones
Like ravenous wolves we feed off of each other
We are course as ringlets colliding creating thunderclaps
Unable to be permeated by the teeth of my rattail comb
Our mentality is kinky and dying of thirst like un-watered
roots gasping for precipitation
Aching to be touched like fingertips cascading over rough,
dry, untrodden scalp
We have been systematically changed
Psychologically arranged
Culturally estranged
Like house Negroes and uncle Toms who have forgotten where
they came from
Hoodwinked,
Bamboozled,
And shortchanged out of our education
From segregation
To discrimination
To the manipulation of our history
Our ethnicity is fleeting like wild roses withered by
erosion
And left blowing in the wind
This predisposition to believe that we are inadequate based
on the color of our skin is an albatross draped off of collarbones like
present-day lynching
With their reprogramming and conditioning they’ll make you
believe that there is something wrong with pigments too vibrant to be silent
My melanin screams like a crescendo of a 1920s jazz band
My melanin screams like bullhorn voices aimed at revolution
Like clenched fists aimed for Heaven showing everyone that
WE. ARE. HERE!
My melanin screams like underground poets exchanging lyrics
with the wind on the streets of Atlanta
I am unapologetically black
Black as ebony skin kissed by a brazen sun
Black as the heavenly blanket of an Egypt night
Black as the womb of the African continent in its first trimester
Black as the Raven’s wing outstretched and ready to take
flight
Does it offend you that I wear my crown like others wear
diamonds around their necks?
It was passed down to me
By men and women who were regal
And I believe, fiercely
That we are more than what we have been reduced to
I’ve dreamt of African Queens like children dream of
princesses and in my dreams we were intertwined with the soul of Nefertiti like
Egyptian lace
Perfectly threaded
No stitch exposed
And we were royal.
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