cripchick's blog
another shapeshifter living among the digital masses

  • Wrong Is Not My Name

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    March 21st, 2009cripchickwriting/poetry

    part one:

    do you know what it means to be someone’s nightmare?
    a glance from me is enough to terrify you
    the way i talk and breathe sends shivers down your spine
    when i move, you make a point to dash out of this alleged path of destruction

    in meetings, my opened mouth makes you nervous
    i take your loved ones and turn them into people you don’t know
    people who are not afraid
    your smile looks like it is hurting your face

    it is amazing how a girl like me
    can carry so much power

    this outstretched hand
    knows what it wants
    and always gets it

    your fear is fitting
    wrong is not my name

    part two

    do you know what it means to be someone’s nightmare?
    to always be aware of how much space you take up?
    to pad everything you say with softness, to live to alleviate and massage their fear?

    you see, i know
    i know that everyday

    i make parents hug their children
    at age 7, 15, 21, i hear their warnings
    do not go near her, you will not know what to do, you might embarrass us
    people will think you like those kind of people, that there is something wrong with you too
    don’t you know? that girl will not be able to give you babies, you will end up providing for her

    i’m not even sure what is so scary about the body i inhabit
    but i hear that
    everyday

    part three:

    do you know what it means to be someone’s nightmare?
    i do

    when messages of my monstrosity start to slip in and become part of my consciousness (it always does, i am not superhuman),
    i take my finger and trace out june jordan’s words
    i am not wrong, wrong is not my name, my name is my own my own my own

    friends remind me that i am no one’s nightmare, but rather the realization of so many dreams
    the product of praying grandmothers
    of resilience, of survival

    it is fear talking
    i refuse to listen

    so if you wonder why i call everything an industrial complex (my friend said that yesterday)
    or why i am not interested in your diversity bullshit
    it is because i am already told everyday that we are occupiers, squatters, inhabitants, outcasts living on the margins
    of society
    of good
    of right

    and baby, i don’t need your reminder

    -

    “I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
    My name is my own my own my own
    and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this
    but I can tell you that from now on my resistance
    my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
    may very well cost you your life”
    -June Jordan

 

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cripchick

picture of cripchick smiling while talking on her phone. Cripchick is a queer disabled corean-american living and loving in North Carolina. Cripchick is a 22 year old youth organizer who has been working in the youth arm of the Disability Rights Movement since high school. She is most interested in using poetry, community organizing and media as a way to cut through isolation that marginalized people often face. Cripchick is a radical woman of color feminist and believes in the power of people coming together.

you can say hi by clicking on the post titled and leaving a comment, emailing her at consciouslycrip[at]gmail [dot]com, or on twitter.

A Few Projects Cripchick Is Involved With

School of Our Lorde

Cripchick is facilitating a satellite campus in her local community for School of Our Lorde. School of Our Lorde is an effort to bring people together to study the poetics, pedagogy, politics and publishing of feminist warrior poet Audre Lorde. You can join an existing campus, participate by distance learning or start your own campus! To find out more, visit: http://summerofourlorde.wordpress.com/

Disability Justice Track at the Allied Media Conference

The Allied Media Conference is an annual gathering where artists, media makers and activists come together to talk media strategies for community building. Cripchick is working with other disabled people to create the first ever Disability Justice track--- a space where we people will dissect a disability justice analysis and have time to talk about the way disability shapes our work as cultural activists, media makers and activists. You can find out more at http://alliedmediaconference.org

Disabled Young People's Collective's first ever Activism, Community, Empowerment Summit

Cripchick is an active member with the Disabled Young People's Collective, a crew of disabled youth working to get free in NC. DYP is organizing a 6 day event in August for disabled youth between the ages 16-24 to come together and learn about disability justice, organizing, and community building. To get an application or find out more, visit http://thedypcollective.org

let’s meet up!

I am traveling a bit this year and want to maximize my time by meeting other activists, artists, and cool peeps (that means you!). Let's talk, video record each others stories, and eat together! I am also up for poetry readings, giving workshops on ableism, organizing and disability justice, and working to build with you. I have commitments during most of these days (workshops, conferences, etc) but if you want me to work with your local group, most of my dates are flexible if I can find a place for my PA and I to crash at nights.

Cripchick's tentative travel dates:

Jackson, MS - first week of March
New Orleans, LA - March 3-5
Raleigh/Chapel Hill, NC - mid march
Portland & Seaside, OR - April 9-15
Washington, DC - May 3-5
Atlanta, GA May 9-12
Detroit, MI June 17-26
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