Glory Edim’s anthology Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves is a must-read for all Black Women striving to find their stories celebrated in great literary works. This book was my first time reading Ms.Edim and is certainly not my last. It is in between these pages that I found beloved authors and reflections that deeply resonated with me. Growing up in a fairly strict culture-rooted Somali household I often found myself looking to literature to explore a world I didn’t see but felt so connected to. Books were a sacred medium of exploration. I recall a time I’d borrow three books at a time and read them all within a two-week timeframe. My fingers caressed words that felt like home with each page I turned. I knew I was exactly where I needed to be! The collection of storytellers, creators, and courageous women in Well-Read Black Girl recall times they too felt as though they saw their own reflections empowering them to speak their truth through literature. Hardcover or paperback we were drawn to the call of our sisters in stories masterfully written by melanated Queens. Edim reminds us that we not only have a place in literature we also have the power to create and shape our own narratives.
“I am here because of the indigenous people of this country, because of the enslaved people who were here before me, the young people of the civil rights movements who fought hard to get me to this moment.” — Jacqueline Woodson
The erasure of Black men and women in popular literature and even film has been a consistent motif that the women in Well-Read Black Girl expose. I couldn’t help but notice how in each of the women’s stories they emphasize how challenging it was to find books that told our stories, much less celebrated them. This is why it is vital that we write. It is in writing our joy, pain, trials, and triumphs that we provide future generations with a guide to understanding who they are. Our stories have the potential to aid young minds in honoring their unique experiences while emboldening them to step into spaces knowing that they belong.
“In the future, as in the present, as in the past, black people will build many new worlds.
This is true. I will make it so. And you will help me.”
― N.K. Jemisin
©HajiThePoet
A Word From The Author
Thank you so much tribe for taking the time to read my article. I am deeply honored that you have chosen to follow my introspective journey as a transient being in healing. Much love and light!