LIBERATE

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STANDBYS By Adriana Parker Warning: This poem may contain vulgar language and references to sexual assault But don’t cover your ears Y’all need to hear this shit — To the room full of bystanders who just stood by: I hereby declare you garbage cans Cowardly And just downright disrespectful Fuck all y’all Ain’t no friends of mine As if I needed your protection I thought we been through this before When the real work starts y’all quiet I shouldn’t NEED your protection But your snake ass homeboys And one-off acquaintances should not try to slide their way between my legs I mean, best not to be so finger lickin’ good right? Best not to move too sexy and tickle his fancy Don’t give him. no twerk when your song is on Best not to have a drink Or two Or three Or however many I lost count Best not to go out Leave the comfort of my house Celebrate Just have a damn good time And y’all wonder why I’m always inside myself Lucky me I could fight it this time Lucky me the blood only rushed to his second head Lucky me I was only an almost not again I swear #MeToo JUST left my lips so why do the bodies keep rising? Now my curves feel more like curses Having a pussy is automatic invitation to fuck right? Let them prop you on a counter Feel you up Shake you down Don’t dare fight back
Swallow this objectification and may it not burn your throat May it be the sweetest sin you ever tasted Now how is that for justification? Well my ass was shaking I must have wanted it right? “Yo shit fat ma let me get inside / You making me hard / Let us see what you look like” Nigga your name ain’t Kanye I ain’t ask for these flashing lights Just trying to throw it back after a long week without you behind me I didn’t want this Bass too heavy like his hands around my neck Like his niggas creeping up behind me even though I said no all night But back to these bystanders Would you have seen it if I were your sister? Your Mother? Your Homie-lover-friend? Would you have checked it? Checked him? Would you have cast them out? And now here I am again Letting you know I’m fed the fuck up with smelling the bricks in this house named patriarchy Or rape culture But what’s really in a name? They all the same right? I mean, y’all befriend rapists every day Your girl probably a survivor and never told you And I’m sick of this silence Yours, theirs and even mine sometimes I’m tired of the all talk and no action No listen Of the “we support the 1 in 5” but you always on standby with clean hands Ain’t it funny? I feel safer in the company of strangers than this prison we call home sometimes Don’t you know I’ve worn tape around my body labelled trigger warning for years? Can’t wash off this stink of humiliation no matter how hard I try Tell me... can you smell it? Is the reek appealing? Or is it noseblind ignorance? Is rape too bitter a pill? Tell me... if for the first, second, almost third time around what would the bystanders do had it been... you?
Page 1 and 2: Liberate Gender violence edition
Page 3 and 4: Gender Violence Gender violence inc
Page 5 and 6: Visual - Yemi Kolawole Visual - Ash
Page 8 and 9: Black Duke, we need to do better
Page 10 and 11: Some Black Lives Matter On my worst
Page 12 and 13: How does this erasure manifest? Emb
Page 15 and 16: Video & Photography by Naomi Lilly
Page 17 and 18: Knowing what little peace you had l
Page 19 and 20: A can’t tell her research team, b
Page 21: Know that I gifted you my body in a
Page 25: Shifting the Culture By: Krystal Ge

LIBERATE

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