Spoken Word Poetry | Black Girl Magic

Once upon a time there were 4 princesses
Sleeping Beauty who laid waiting for love
Cinderella, who found her prince at midnight
Belle, the girl who fell in love with the beast
And the little mermaid, Ariel

Sleeping Beauty: Fair skinned, blonde hair and blue eyes when they talk about the American dream, they mean her
Cinderella: With eyes like crystal balls, little girls can only picture their future through her
Belle: With an hourglass figure, her beauty is timeless
Ariel: Red cheeks & sunburned hair they compare girls like her to roses

They are the epitome of pretty
And not to mention they’re (all) white

As if black can’t be synonymous with royalty
It took Disney 72 years for a black girl to step inside a castle
And even then, she was only a plus one to the princess
And even then, she was poor
And even then, she was fatherless
And even then, half of the fuckin’ movie she wasn’t even human

How long have black girls been shedding their voices to be beautiful
They tell us we are far too loud natural
our hair & our attitudes are too tough
Disney you've taught us how to turn women into a storyline, never worth reading unless a man is there to open the pages.
And girls who look like me
Don't turn too many pages
We don't show up in many books
Look how easy my spine bends
Like be women be white wait for Prince wait for white man
Black girls memorize the faces of princess with blue eyes before they learn to love their own
Blonde hair Barbie
Never taught me how to love the Brown in me
Speak me into existence like you mean it

Ariel: you have been swimming in man made submission for 16 years
so it's no wonder sometimes it gets hard for you to breathe
Your father always told you, you don't fall in love, you fold yourself into a man
You have drowned enough times to make it look like that's suppose to be a happy ending
The world like most boys, like most Disney movies,
like most of our lives have no room for black girl fairy tales

Cinderella: You have been taught that there is nothing that a mop and clenched teeth can’t fix Your step-mother tries to hide your voice in long dresses and folded clothes
She hangs up your flaws she tells you to be more organized
because a lady never lets the world see her dirty laundry.
Your oppression ended with a glass slipper, that black girls never get to try on
Disney scripts us out of screens until there is no melanin in movies

Belle: Beauty always confines you, holding you hostage.
The mirror, a cage you sleep in.
For you, being pretty, is to stare a beasts in the face
His anger always rises like the sun. How does your skin taste bendeeath his teeth?
There is nothing pretty about your story. Domestic violence is not beautiful.
For black girls like me, the number one cause of death is homicide at the hands of a lover.

Sleeping Beauty: You often have nightmares because your dreams only consist of waiting for a prince - you think sleeping is only right when a man is there to wake you up.
Consent has always been a foreign language to men .
We know you need prince charming to rescue you, but we don’t.
You dream about being outspoken, loud, independent
You dream about being me.

Ariel.
Cinderella
Belle
Sleeping Beauty

Disney,
America wouldn’t have anything left if you take away what black girls built for it
Look how magically our hair curls
How the sun finds comfort in our skin
The way we create masterpieces out of shadows
Who else do you know that can make summertime out of melanin
You took our darkness for granted
Don’t forget how we shine
Disney - we know you think these princesses are mystical but castles crumble easy without black girl magic