Old School
Enjoy a community written newsletter that started as a creative writing prompt in the chat thread. Just like our old school newsletters started!
A year ago, when I started Blackstack, the newsletter topics were curated from conversations after bringing an idea to the chat. Lately, the lesson for me has been to get back to the basics in all aspects of life.
Every week, I try to post a new chat thread for us to share the link to our work to share with the community, but last week I wanted to give us space for some fun creative writing. A way to express how we feel as Black Americans, while also doing what we do best - writing through it.
So I posted these three images in the chat thread with the caption below, and y’all showed out per usual.
And per usual, I felt it was too good to just live in the chat, so here I am turning yet another idea for community writing into a newsletter. That’s why I titled it Old School.
I want to try something out. Imagine we are on a walk to the park from the coffee shop. I’m offering you a hit of my blunt (if you’re into that or if the USA got you ready to take a hit this time), then you look up and see Black people living in the midst of chaos. Write your best opening below. 👇🏾
I take a hit of sanity
My lungs burn with passion
I see my fellow people
Braving through being tenacious
We won’t drown in your chaos
Our light will still shine outward
Showing us the way past
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Look at us.
Black folks out here turning survival into rhythm, chaos into communion.
Like peace was always meant to be reclaimed, not found.
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Stress is beating down on me harder than the sun as I turn the corner off Rockaway Parkway. I’m waiting for the L Train to roll in, already knowing I’m gonna be late for work, but fuck it. Let me hit this right quick and escape.
I hide my head in the inch of shade this stingy building gives, and turn Meth up a little louder to remember better days. “Excuse me while I kiss the sky….”
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It’s all burning, but I find I do not care. I pull and pass, eyes on the path ahead, the gentle knocking of the ice in my cup a somehow soothing accompaniment to the sirens, the squawks. We look at each other, and when you raise your eyebrows and purse your lips, the laughter rockets out of us until we’re slapping each other and tears roll from our eyes.
My legs refuse to take another step, and I place my hands on my hips, leaning my head back to exhale a gusting “WHOOOO” at the sky. I can’t look at you. To do so risks another bout of uncontrollable mirth. Instead, I look around and take note of my surroundings. I notice other people who share variations of our hue are similarly, remarkably unbothered. Refusing to be rushed. A mother bends over the stroller of her little man to give him a snack.
A couple strolls arm in arm, he leaning down to whisper in her ear, and she blushing ever so subtly while delivering a small punch to his chest. He disentangles his arm and pretends to stagger, making her giggle. Cute. And when we get to the park, a couple of guys are playing pickup with their shirts casually discarded against the fence that lines the court. You catch me looking, and I shrug slightly as if to say, I am only human.
All of us, it seems, share this consciousness, this knowledge that this situation is not new. It offers no unique perspective. And so, we do not hurry toward a reckoning or try to prove how helpful we can be. We share the understanding that this has been caused by “those people” and for once, we will not rush in to fix it. It is all burning. It has before, and it will again. You light a fresh one as we take a seat and talk shit and watch the brothers play ball. This is how we find our way.
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I didn't smoke, until today - maybe lol
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See how we find laughter from smoke and flames?
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trust me, you're gonna wanna hit this sis 🌬
my immediate inner thoughts, "it's about time somebody burned this shit down!" as i inhale the flower, i hear a voice in the distance..."it's time to really see what's beyond the smoke...where there is smoke, there is fire - but the fire is in you, so let's go, come with me to a different realm, a different dimension where we can truly see that all this shit is just smoke & mirrors...and when it all clears, you will see us still existing, still celebrating, and still creating.
Somebody play "Mary Jane" by Ky-Mani Marley
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The peace I feel inside of me
An echo of the peace around me
I can relate to the feeling of burning
Breathe in fire, breathe out smoke
I know they're feeling it with me
Calm, thick, like magma in our blood
Pulsing to the beat of our hearts
Slow and steady waves over rage
Our lives remain
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I knew it was happening today but like always I wished, like a child on some star that died a millennia ago, that it wouldn't escalate. Who am I fooling, it always does. It's a city known for its change through the rising choir of justice from voices stifled too long. My eyes begin to itch through a cloud and I see a hand like a vision reach out to me. I didn't know I stopped walking.
My fingers going numb from the heat of my macchiato. I usually smile and wave away offers but today I think I may stand next to that vision under Keith's Coffee shaded green overhang. I may take her up on that hit just so when the shields start banging in uniform I don't feel like I don't know what to do. Caffeine give me instinctual speed. Joint gather me courage.
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Jesus Chantal Christ!!!
What you calling them for
Pass that shit, this what it was meant for
Hit a 2 step, this ain’t a new step
Ancestors prepared me
Walk 6 or more deep, surprise you can’t see
Them all
Just watching the fall of the way it used to be
Hold on youngin be free
Wait, what is that in ya right hand?
A chocolate banana smoothie.
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We be here. We’ll be here.
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I yet had an understanding of the severity of our continued but soon to be heightened struggle in our fight against those who weren’t us. But in this moment, my vision was clear in the way we mastered the ability to live on in our bubbles of freedom.
Those bubbles, no matter how small, were forever protected by the ancestors. I could even see them dancing sometimes around our bubble, casting away the evil that wanted to burst our joy. Or maybe that was just the weed manifesting in my imagination. Regardless, it was always so beautiful to see.
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No matter how much they try, they'll never be like us because when it comes to justice, it's always been just us.
One thing about my Black people, they'll never keep us down, royalty runs through our veins, it's time we adjust our crowns
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I accept your gift and hold it up for a moment like a pride fist before filling my chest and exhaling the pain. As artists, it’s our duty to celebrate expression and release by any means necessary.
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As the smoke invades my lungs, from afar I see a gathering of folks crying. I continue to smoke and walk closer. Seeing blurred faces through the smoke. I reach the scene and see them circled around a Black woman laid down perfectly still. On her chest is written, SAYHERNAME. One person starts to chant, Mina. Others start chiming in, a beautiful sonnet of varying voices getting louder and louder. The blunt end burning my fingers but I don’t care. I say her name as the cries, screams, chants turn into an African beat of chaos, beauty, resilience, and sadness.
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After I get my tea…which I know is worth the $8 because the number of coffee shops that make a great London Fog in this city. Every day the news becomes more and more like the sci-fi and fantasy I can’t even bear to read anymore (thanks anxiety) so my silence is heavy.
Even if I did smoke, I wouldn’t dare in the openness of “Unity” Park. What a name. What a name!! All around me, I see mostly white faces with a few brown ones here and there. But their performance is regal. My performance is regal, as I walk with a grace that doesn’t belie my fear. My rage. My despair.
A daughter of immigrants. Of the enslaved. My DNA so muddled I think that’s why self-love is so hard…I see my enemy in my skin and features. They see it too…but we stay on the stage with our masks and parade as if the world isn’t crumbling to pieces. It’s just another day in the park.
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I'd smile, reach out my hand, take a hit. Walk with the calm that my ancestors have infused into me, look around and say:
"A joy so resilient should be studied. In spite of unending battles, we dance, we play, we create. We become the beauty the world wants to see in spite of its constant attempt to quiet our song. But for now, I'll enjoy it, with you. Because even as the world burns, I can still look at you and see all that's worth saving."
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“How ironic, we have been here before! Even in the midst of chaos, we still find time to embrace the light through the darkness. Our resilience always on full display. My heart aches and shows joy at the same time because we find a will from any situation but alas, we happen to live within this frame of mind since we been here. We gon’ be alright, as always. I just pray one day, we’ll be better than alright…”
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I imagine this person explaining it to their friend
I’m walking home and this fine jawn next to me offers me hit of something I have nooo idea what it is, but I take it cause fuck it, why not? I inhale so deeply my chest starts to burn, and it feels like it’s on fire. I’m coughing like a chimney, she starts laughing, asking me, “Are you good?” I say, “Yeah, I’m good.”
I smile at shawty as I try to keep it together…we keep walking, I’m taking in the sights and sounds. The warm earthy tones of this afternoon walk. All of a sudden, I hear this loud BOOM…I immediately feel the shift in the air, and the vibration bounces off my chest. All my senses awaken….
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Jaded breathing,
I take in the bejeweled streets, what with their onyx god-body populace. It's a bittersweet rhythm I walk with, and your kindness as you hand me the joint reminds me of the flow still running deep within the wind we sow. We keep it pushing. As long as we got each other, brothers and sisters, may these streets remain glistening with the gems of Gaia.
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Note From Jacquie: I shouldn’t have to keep saying this but this newsletter is curated for Black Readers Only - thanks in advance. To my people feel free to share what comes to your heart and mind after reading our community responses. We can keep this prompt going in the comments.
This is super dope! Thank you! Now I gotta write something new
I love these! Makes me want to write something right now!!