Скачать или смотреть How MayaSpoken has learned to embrace her inner "angry Black woman"

The stereotype of the angry Black woman is so pervasive it even has its own Wikipedia page. Despite having their activism labelled as "loud," and fearlessness to call out social inequities characterized as "angry," Black women and trans and non-binary folks have remained at the forefront of anti-oppression work.

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Ottawa based poet MayaSpoken knows all too well what it means to be labelled as an angry Black woman, and it has fuelled her art: "For most of my life I have been conditioned to censor myself in expression of rightful anger. Myself, along with other Black women, grew up living in a world that not only worked against us, but expected us to be silent. The older I became, I learned that even in silence, we face discrimination."

But for Maya, writing this poem was not about re-branding, but instead leaning in to the essence of what it means to be a Black woman and stay loud because "the only way out of what we are facing is fighting our way through."

At 19, she started a spoken word showcase for women in Ottawa and founded You Tell 'Em Girl and Loud Black Girls – two initiatives meant to provide space for other women to be loud too.
As the world around us grows more and more uncertain, four black female poets speak their truth in the fourth season of the CBC Arts series Poetic License.

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