We Were Just Thinking

Welcome to our article page. Sometimes our thoughts come from our writings and what better way to share them with you than our own article forum.

Moe’s Journey

I would like to believe I was born different.  But I think I was born the same “different” as everybody else.  My environment shaped my POV and my personality shaped how I used that POV.  I am an artist, a black woman,  a daughter, a sibling, a mother, a wife, an auntie, a niece, a cousin, and I hope to many a “good” friend.  Being most of those labels was something I was born into without choice.  Being a black woman was something society said, when I was born, I have to be. But, being an artist is the only one of those labels, I believe I was born TO be.  

I was raised in the deep south in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.  And thus, I was raised in 2 worlds.  The world that black people lived in that is run by a mostly white, patriarchal structured, supremacist striving society.  And the world that existed when no white person was looking. Both worlds put a lot on the shoulders of young black children. But, from my POV, specifically for young black girls like myself.  

Imagine that when you’re born what is considered “your life”, is a backpack that you are given.  It was put on your little back but you were not the one that gets to initially fill it or determine what tools you hang on it for your trek through life.  That is all decided by your family, your schools, your religion, and your community. And more specifically governments who create how big your backpack should be, where you can carry it, and if you take it off or change the color, build laws to punish you for it.  As a young black woman, I often felt uncomfortable carrying my backpack but was taught to act like I wasn’t.  By the time I was 21 my backpack was crazy full of other people’s shit!!! It wasn’t until my late 30s to early 40s that I realized that I could unpack what others had put in my backpack.  And I was 50 before I realized that I could zip it shut and regulate what went in and out of my backpack. 

Intelligently Defined, for me, is the packing and unpacking I have done over my lifetime.  Exploring the reasons for the things that were put into it by others and rediscovering my own packing skills.  ID is about deconstructing my backpack and rebuilding it with pockets and compartments and in a shape that is comfortable for me to carry for the rest of my life…and maybe into the next 2 or 3, wink, wink.