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brand it on the tip of your tongue
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October 16th, 2009ableism, activism, colonization, violence, women of color, writing/poetryi’ll scream it again & again—
no matter how eager, how radical, how cute you are
i do not exist for your fancy of freakery.
i could care less about feeding your taste for exotic flavors. i was not born to stroke your fascination of marginalized people.
no matter how much you are learning, no matter how much power/money/influence you carry, no matter how much you always know the right things to say,
my body is not for you to examine, conquer, or casually observe
as if the strands of my hair were nothing more than pages of a magazinethe creator did not craft these hands, lungs, feet of mine so you can feel good about yourself. my issues are not for you to solve.
who said you could analyze me? i am not a hobby, a project, a case study
nor will i ever be a pet to collect
in that menagerie of yoursinstead i am harriet tubman using her disability to trick slavemasters, survey lands, and carve out paths to freedom
i am the spear waiting in datu lapu lapu’s right hand, standing with thousands ready to slice the colonizer’s head off of magellan’s body
i am the body casts frida kahlo painted on
i am the freedom song my joseon ancestors sung, the taegukis wrapped around their foreheads as they demanded an end to tyrannyno matter how quick i was to hand you this hard-earned self-determination in the past, know that from now on, you are being watched. vigilantly.
flip it, spit it out in a poem, brand it on the tip
of your tongue
do whatever you have to do
to remember
3 responses to “brand it on the tip of your tongue” 
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Wow. Powerful post.
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Hey there,
Your poem was cited today during a lecture on ableism and racism today, and I found it very intriguing. One, probably entirely aberrant question remains, though:
Why did you write “my body is not for you to exam,…”, when it should be “examine”? Is that a typo, or do you have a particular reason for it?
I’m wondering because I’m a linguist, and I’m always interested in people using language grammatically creatively. :)
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cripchick January 22nd, 2010 at 16:01
hee! thanks for pointing that out, a, it’s totally a typo. just fixed it. where was the lecture? awesome to see that work being done.
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cripchick
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
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
NTE November 18th, 2009 at 14:03