I am sharing a poem that was gifted to me in celebration of my recent graduation. The poet is a beautiful spirit known as Erica Kristina Reid. She is my femtee. Like her poem, she is also a gift to us all, one delivered by the universe, to change the lens through which we each view the world! In the case of her poem, we are challenged to understand the power of the femtor-femtee relationship in higher education, especially for Black women. Through poetic verse Erica illustrates why higher education must make good on its claim to recruit more faculty women of color. If for no other reason because the bonds they share serve to sustain and retain the excellence they represent when the culture and climate of the institution is not enuf. I chose to post the poem Erica gifted to me because I need to share her gifts with the world. Why? Because even if the world doesn't know it yet, Ms. Erica Kristina Reid, soon to be Dr. Reid, will one day set the world as we currently experience it on fire! Here are my femtee's words on fire...may they speak life into you in the same way they do so for me...
I saw fire today reaching out and in between
She moved the ground we were standing on
Transformed the form of our being
I heard life screaming out to me
Challenging me to change the course of my journey
Leaning and swaying as she spoke her truthful story
While love washed over each seat and every wave
Something whispered deep down in our souls with each sway she made
I saw my mother in you,
her soul reaching out from deep waters stretching across the Egyptian sea
I felt fire breathing out of you
from the crevices of each part of your inner most being
It moved the way we thought about revolutionizing the spaces we see
We cannot change what we do not acknowledge
We need to see beyond our individual knowledges
It is in the stories we tell, the lives we speak that bear witness to the history
My sister of many mothers from Africa and beyond
Keep breathing life through the stories of the untold and the ones that have gone.
Mother earth from the fire you cast may our lands be transformed
Into the lives we once never had or the ones we once dreamed of.
Today was an important day. I wrote this poem not just because of the path you have taken to fulfill a promise to your Big Momma but also for the example you lived to get to that promise. I am sitting at my desk now and allowing myself to reflect on the experience of vicariously watching you for the past almost two years and I want to scream at the top of my lungs-THANK YOU. Not just to you, but to your beautiful mother who birthed you, and to her beautiful mother who birthed her, and to the villages along the way that sustained them and gave you the foundation that you stand on.
There is something about the beauty of the African soul that sits deep within me. Today I saw you becoming the greatness you were born to be as so many of our ancestors have already done. So, in my Caribbean tongue; I say Auntie Tonya- Respect! in the most humble and gracious way. Thank you for showing up and being you always. Thanks also for helping me through my journey of attempting to learn in spaces, and with suitcases that are not always welcoming to change.
I wish you many more spaces where you continue to set the world on fire.
With love
Erica Kristina Reid- Your Femtee
I saw fire today reaching out and in between
She moved the ground we were standing on
Transformed the form of our being
I heard life screaming out to me
Challenging me to change the course of my journey
Leaning and swaying as she spoke her truthful story
While love washed over each seat and every wave
Something whispered deep down in our souls with each sway she made
I saw my mother in you,
her soul reaching out from deep waters stretching across the Egyptian sea
I felt fire breathing out of you
from the crevices of each part of your inner most being
It moved the way we thought about revolutionizing the spaces we see
We cannot change what we do not acknowledge
We need to see beyond our individual knowledges
It is in the stories we tell, the lives we speak that bear witness to the history
My sister of many mothers from Africa and beyond
Keep breathing life through the stories of the untold and the ones that have gone.
Mother earth from the fire you cast may our lands be transformed
Into the lives we once never had or the ones we once dreamed of.
Today was an important day. I wrote this poem not just because of the path you have taken to fulfill a promise to your Big Momma but also for the example you lived to get to that promise. I am sitting at my desk now and allowing myself to reflect on the experience of vicariously watching you for the past almost two years and I want to scream at the top of my lungs-THANK YOU. Not just to you, but to your beautiful mother who birthed you, and to her beautiful mother who birthed her, and to the villages along the way that sustained them and gave you the foundation that you stand on.
There is something about the beauty of the African soul that sits deep within me. Today I saw you becoming the greatness you were born to be as so many of our ancestors have already done. So, in my Caribbean tongue; I say Auntie Tonya- Respect! in the most humble and gracious way. Thank you for showing up and being you always. Thanks also for helping me through my journey of attempting to learn in spaces, and with suitcases that are not always welcoming to change.
I wish you many more spaces where you continue to set the world on fire.
With love
Erica Kristina Reid- Your Femtee
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