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The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 6(1/2), 2022 
ISSN 2574-3430, https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijidi 
DOI: 10.33137/ijidi.v6i1.38152 

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akua naru, Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, 
& Transnational Migration, Yale University, USA 

Keywords: black life; hip hop; poetry 

Publication Type: Special Section - Creative 

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here 

where the spirits lay but never rest 

their tongues dry as rust, untamed thirst  

a bottomless belly vengeful and scorned 

woven to those lost at shore  

those the land yawned and stretched for, always slightly out of reach   

here  

the bayou. the lake. the river bend. 

in the neck of earth. at the seams and sea  

our bodies braided and tethered. mangled, and strewn, 

stolen and stranded, 

here.  

in the houses our mothers built, in the waters of their names, we bathe, wade and wail 

our tears licked and counted. the salt of their sweat 

the pain a tomb,  

the suffering 

a cross, too bloody a burden  

to bear 

the price. a debt beyond what one can pay.  

https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijidi


Here 

 

The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 6(1/2), 2022 
ISSN 2574-3430, jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijidi/index 
DOI: 10.33137/ijidi.v6i1.38152 

82 

we’re here 

on this day, in this place,  

limbs stretched east and west,  

right here 

in the desecrated body unforgotten, the wounded heart healed and claimed,  

the forsaken prayer, answered, the violated space restored,  

YES. 

in this blue-black, mahogany, ebony, onyx skin 

where God lurks and lulls the weary head.  

 

akua naru (akua_naru@brown.edu) is a hip hop artist, producer, activist, and scholar from  
New Haven, CT, who theorizes the myriad experiences of Black women through rhyme along  
a sonic spectrum from jazz to soul. She has released four albums: “...the journey aflame (2011),” 
“Live & Aflame Sessions (2012),” “The Miner’s Canary (2015),” and “The Blackest Joy (2018)” – 
three of which were on the label she co-founded, The Urban Era. naru has performed hundreds 
of shows in more than fifty countries across five continents with her six-piece band. She has been 
invited to lecture at Harvard University, University of Oxford, Cornell University, Princeton 
University, Fordham University, University of Cologne (Germany), Ahfad University for Women 
(Sudan), and Pivot Point College (China), among countless others. naru was the 2018-19 Nasir 
Jones Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research (Harvard University) 
and a Race & Media Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) 
at Brown University (2019-21). She is currently a Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at the Center 
for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration at Yale University. In addition, 
naru is the Founder & Artistic Director of The Keeper Project, the first archive to focus on 
women's work throughout five decades of Hip Hop history, permanently housed at the Center for 
Digital Scholarship at Brown University Library. 

 

https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijidi/index
mailto:akua_naru@brown.edu

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