Abstract
At the time of this writing, the world is in the throes of a global pandemic. COVID-19 has reached every corner of the world. The impact has been devastating across individual and collective contexts. This autoethnographic poessay is a creative exploration of a Black woman’s experience(s) of living in and through COVID-19 and enduring racial oppression. It weaves between time, space and place recognizing the interconnectedness of the personal, professional, and social-cultural. This piece intentionally amplifies, and grapples with, emergent and conflicting tensions without seeking to resolve them.
Highlights
Racial and economic disparities, which existed before COVID-19, have swelled to a disturbing degree
Two guiding questions informed the exploration : 1) What weighs on the Black drama therapist in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and living within the context of enduring racial oppression? 2) What uplifts the Black drama therapist in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and living within the context of enduring racial oppression? As I encountered and engaged with personal experiences, memories, news, and historical resonances that related to the questions, poetic reflection was used to respond
In 1961, when James Baldwin was asked about the experience of being Black in America by a radio host, he replied: To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time—and in one's work
Summary
Racial and economic disparities, which existed before COVID-19, have swelled to a disturbing degree. Arts-rooted activism has impacted social-cultural change and Black people have consistently recognized and reified that “creative action liberates us by reminding ourselves and other that we can come up with new ways to disrupt” (Chrislene DeJean, as quoted in Esema, 2014) The scope of this poessay does not allow for an outline of the voluminous ways in which Black people(s) have used creative action as a means to connect, heal and disrupt. Poetry has been used as a way to illuminate emergent themes in my intersectional experience of being a Black woman and a drama therapist living in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as unrest and uprising in the US This exploration amplifies the relational dynamics that exist at the intersection of the personal, professional, and social-cultural. Living through COVID-19/unrest/uprising, I/my body has at once registered grief and overwhelm while feeling deeply and cellularly prepared to face chaos, upheaval and uncertainty
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