Maracas + Movement Make Mundos

I remember the black boricua woman dancing Bomba in Santurce.

I remember her shoulders as they shimmied--her legs bent, her balance solid....

I remember the freedom I felt as I finally unlearned the ways of whiteness and I learned to dance freely as a goddess in Cuban circles.

When we humans dance bailamos to the beat of the cosmos. The whole universe opens up like a mother about to give birth with the galaxies.

I want a world where we can play the maracas and sing PuertoRican Plena recklessly during Monday morning meetings.

A world where no one dares to call the police when the Afro-Carribean instruments play at night because the artists, the troubadours, and dancers "somos los que mandamos aquí"; We are the ones who rule here...

I want to see a world where we don't make money based on how still we sit nor how stoic our faces, but based on how much joy we bring to ourselves and one another.

A world where we measure success and richness on freedom, on the quality of dance and movement and rhythm....

On the quality of Soul that we put into this breath, this stroke, this connection of smiles between queens.

I want a world today where we are encouraged and inspired to dance with zen-like oneness with the ever constant heart-beat like the drums in a batey.

I want to propose that we sway together and convince them with our sweat and our energy and ritmo "constante-te-te-te..."

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Inspired by “Naija Nights: If There Is Heaven” artwork of Mariona Lloreta, performed for Lisa Pegram’s Shakti Brigade Poetry Tea Party Spring 2021