I remember the first time I heard Kelis’ 1999 song “Caught Out There.” The music video came on and I turned up the volume in our family room and jumped around on the couches joining in the chorus, “I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW… AHHHHHHHH!”
My mom rushed to the room and told me to turn “that mess” off. “We don’t hate people in this house.” I didn’t know music could have that much power. I didn’t know a Black woman’s creative rage could have that much power.
I’m so excited to facilitate my creative writing workshop in person next Saturday, May 18—if you’re in the New York area, I’d love to see you there! I launched the workshop virtually in April 2020 and developed a creative writing journal about a year later, which has been recently updated with revised affirmations, more prompts, and extended playlists.
Along with updated affirmations, I added a section about being human and connecting with divine anger because the reality is, that some of us, aren’t given the space to be angry. Our anger is trivialized, ridiculed, and seen as a threat to others.
In her 2019 book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown writes:
“Even more frustrating, there are so few acceptable occasions for my rage to be expressed. Because I am a Black person, my anger is considered dangerous, explosive, and unwarranted. Because I am a woman, my anger supposedly reveals an emotional problem or gets dismissed as a temporary state that will go away once I choose to be rational. Because I am a Christian, my anger is dismissed as a character flaw, showing just how far I have turned from Jesus. Real Christians are nice, kind, forgiving—and anger is none of those things.”
What’s been your relationship to anger? What messages were you told about your anger growing up?
Let’s unlock some of that anger. Book a session with me.
Offloading is a great way to create a contained space to say and feel everything we’ve been taught to ignore, push down, or keep hidden. And, you can say and feel everything in a judgment-free zone. Let’s talk (and feel) through what norms you learned about anger, respectability, and expression, and learn somatic methods to channel that anger creatively.
What I’m Reading & Listening To:
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
A Kind of Madness by Uche Okonkwo
Check out more reading suggestions at my Bookshop:
Thank you for supporting this space and ongoing journey. If you’d like to support the life of a full-time creative—including sponsoring an upcoming Intermissions & Interludes Juneteenth music showcase at Brooklyn Art Haus—consider becoming a paid subscriber or donating to my crowdfunding space here.
For Justice & Joy,
LySaundra Janeé