She Called Me a Poet

By Guest Contributor on September 6, 2013

By Candy Taaffe

August 9, 2009

Finally official.

The love and mutual respect is what inspires the truth,

………….and the desire

………….to make happen

………….what I thought could not.

Putting the words to paper slowed down

…………because I was living those words out loud.

And I hope you watched.

It was an incredibly beautiful site to see.

Your reflection back onto me

…………creates a cacophony of

words intertwined in Black girl movement

of connecting love and trust,

………….knowing and intuition.

This time,

I got it right.

We got it right.

My writing is lighter now.

My heart is full.

Even with my eyes slightly closed,

…………I can feel much better through the dark.

…………………..Now that you are walking beside me.

(After becoming disillusioned about the process of merging theory and practice in graduate school, I took a year off. Once back, on August 9, 2009, ignited was a new advisee-advisor relationship that served as evidence to the organic process of conscientizacao. This is for her- and other women of color scholars who co-create with their students out of a desire for mutual respect, understanding, love, and a genuine commitment to praxis in the academy.)

[1] Conscientizacao (consciousness-raising) as defined by Paulo Freire (2000) involves identifying contradictions in experience through dialogue and becoming a subject with other oppressed subjects-that is, becoming part of the process of changing the world.

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Claudine Candy Taaffe is a doctoral student at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership. She began graduate school after eleven years of working in the fields of middle school education, community and youth organizing, and community-based nonprofit programs serving young people. Her research interests include visual methodology, Black girlhood studies, youth development, women of color feminisms, race and ethnic studies, and educational practice. Her dissertation is a two-year long visual ethnographic account of middle school-aged Black girls, who creatively use photography to construct counter-narratives to the negative stereotypes about Black girls in schools and popular culture.