Peddling in Happiness

There is a lot of joy in being a black woman"- Jasmine Guillory, author "The Wedding Date"

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I write a lot of things. Primarily sci-fi. Now, I’m dipping my quill into other genres such as historical fiction, romance, and mystery. But I think I need to make a visceral and deliberate commitment to create art that makes us happy. Art that makes black women cheer us on. And as much as I love Morrison, Baldwin, Walker and even Butler... so much of our literature is about strife and sadness. I can't do it anymore. I want to write about joy.

This is hard. As a black woman, we have this double, sometimes triple edged sword of having to do battle with racism, sexism and sometimes ageism on an everyday basis. Sometimes the misogynoir is so pervasive, it creeps down into our souls and of course, it would affect our writing. But I cannot live like that anymore. Life is entirely too short.

And although I will try and tackle hard subjects and continue experimenting in different genres, I always want things to have a positive ending. No, not like a fairy tale but most certainly positive and happier than usual.

I used to argue with my friends that The Color Purple was a fairytale. I know, it seems absurd. There were bumps and bruises along the way, but in the end, Ceelie got her happy ending on her terms. She came into her own sexuality and her own agency. She stood up to Albert and realized she didn’t need Suge to be a whole person. All she needed was herself.. And though there were some really terrible things that occurred to her, she was and always had been Cinderella. But she was what she was waiting for.

This is what I want. I want heroines to realize love, inner strength and their own tenacity. I want men to feel empowered and not feel like they have to be one sided stereotypes of what black masculinity should be. They can be soft. They can be homoerotic. They can be so many things and more. I just want, in the end, to make work that makes folk feel good about themselves, about their blackness and about their identity.

It is an arduous task. But one I think I am up for.

Let me get back to writing.