Best Black Women's Erotica 2 (26 page)

Rosanna pulls up the group shot and points out how we have all transformed back into our everyday personas, masks and roles intact. She says she's happy to have been allowed the honor and pleasure of seeing yet another side of her closest friends.

“Eros,” she says, “is the power of complete and momentary surrender to the arms of the universe, a transcendental experience where our bodies and souls escape the confines of our constructed personalities.”

“Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, we are orbiting out into Rosanna space!” Chloe says.

“I'm serious, Chloe. That's why Eros lives in so many forms,” Rosanna says. “She lures us through all of our senses, even in our dreams. She's giving us as many opportunities as possible to be free and fully present in the truth of the moment.”

“The truth isn't always beautiful,” I say.

“Right,” Rosanna continues, “but, Meena, whatever you see in your expression is momentary, fleeting, all-powerful because that's all there is. That's what makes it beautiful. The truth is beauty at its enlightening, disturbing, mind-blowing, heartbreaking best.”

A week later, we get a thank-you note in the mail with
copies of the photographs. The note reads, “Thank you for celebrating
your beauty
with us. I think the photos would make a great exhibit. I'd like to call it ‘Meeting Eros.' Think about it. Truthfully, Rosanna.”

I want to put them away someplace where I will never look for them, but I cannot bring myself to so willingly and consciously hide such a powerful gift. That's Rosanna! She puts it right out there in plaink sight. Sometimes beauty is hard to see head on—sort of like the sun, but no matter how many times we have been turned away by the painful glare, we find ourselves trying, again and again, to see what's there in the light. Maybe, like the sun, true beauty is too powerful to behold with the naked eye. Maybe ti recognize and appreciate true beauty we need to feel it like warmth on our skin or taste it like ripened summer fruit or hear it in the songs of welcoming birds, or witness it in a different state of mind.

Maybe making love is a prelude to more than a physical climax; maybe it is a kind of birthing where I find myself crying into the miracle of being me. I take the photograph of my orgasmic face, which no matter how I look at it appears tortured and seems to be crying instead of climaxing, but then I think about how it feels to be so fully accessed, so lovingly tasted, so deeply felt, and so willingly heard, and the beauty is revealed in the feelings remembered.

OPAL PALMER ADISA
was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She is the cofounder of Watoto Wa Kuumba, a children's theater group that she directed from 1979 to 1982. She is the author of
Pina, the Many-eyed Fruit
(1985),
Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories
(1986),
Traveling Women
(1989),
Tamarind and Mango Women
(1992),
It Begins with Tears
(1997), and
Leaf-of-Life
(2000). Her poetry, stories, and articles have been anthologized widely.

 

TA'SHIA ASANTI
is the recipient of the Audre Lorde Black Quill Award, the Seed Scholarship award, and an award for best erotic fiction from the Literary Exchange. In 2002, she was nominated for the Courage in Journalism award. Asanti has written one novel, a collection of short stories, a book of poetry, and a book of creative nonfiction titled
The Book of the Sacred Door
. She lives in Denver with her partner and daughter.

 

CAMILLE BANKS-LEE
is a writer, teacher, and cofounder of Daughters of the Nile, Inc., an academic and creative arts mentoring organization for adolescent girls in Mount Vernon, New York. She and her husband, Malcolm, live in New York with their son, Langston.

 

JAMYLA BENNU
is a New York-based writer, dancer, and Web/print designer.

 

TARA BETTS
, a Cave Canem fellow, is a writer and teacher in Chicago. Her work has appeared in
These Hands I Know, Obsidian III, Columbia Poetry Review, That Takes Ovaries!, Role Call, Bum Rush the Page, Power Lines, Poetry Slam,
and Steppenwolf Theatre's
Words on Fire
. She cohosts an all-women's open mic/performance space called Women OutLoud, and represented Chicago at the 1999 and 2000 National Poetry Slams.

 

JANEÉ BOLDEN
is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at New York University. She was most recently published in
Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art
. She lives in New York City.

 

D. H. BRENT
has written for a national trade association newspaper and owns and manages a graphic design/marketing firm. She has composed numerous poems, and recently began writing erotic short stories. She lives in Laurel, Maryland, and is working on her first novel.

 

C. C. CARTER
has retired from the slam competition scene, but not before winning the Fifth Annual Guild Complex Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Competition and Lambda Book Report's First Annual National Slam Competition at
the Behind Our Mask conference, as well as several local and national slams. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia College in Chicago, where she teaches performance poetry workshops. She is a program director for adult literacy.

 

R. ERICA DOYLE
is a writer of Trinidadian descent who resides in New York City. She teaches writing to teens and adults, is a fellow of Cave Canem, and has received awards from the Astraea and Hurston/Wright foundations. Her work appears in various publications, including
Best American Poetry 2001, Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing, Bum Rush the Page, Role Call, Ploughshares, Callaloo
and
Ms. Magazine
. She is currently at work on a novel.

 

MICHELE ELLIOTT
is a writer, teacher, and visual artist. She teaches creative writing for several local arts organizations and is a grant writer for a community arts center in Washington, D.C. She is working on a book-length manuscript of poetry. She earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh.

 

DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY
is a motivational speaker and the author of six books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including the best-selling
Soul Between the Lines: Freeing Your Creative Spirit Through Writing
. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and periodicals, including
SisterFire, Drum Voices, Personal Journaling, Conditions, HealthQuest,
and the
New York Times
. Gray facilitates writing workshops, empowerment seminars, and healing rituals throughout the United States and abroad. She is founder of the Heartland Institute for Transformation, a spiritual center for the promotion of creativity, empowerment, and healing through the written word.

 

CAROL SMITH PASSARIELLO,
editor of
Sister Soul Journeys,
teaches in the English Department at State University of New York, Westchester. Her work has appeared in
Honey
and
Black Issues Book Review
as well as in the film
The Best Man
.

 

TRACY PRICE-THOMPSON
is the author of the recent Random House release
Black Coffee
. She is currently coediting
Proverbs for the People: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction.
Her work has been recently published in
Children of the Dream: Our Stories of Growing Up Black in America
and
Fortitude
. She received an M.S.W. from Rutgers University and is a Ralph Bunche Fellow as well as a Hurston/Wright Awardee.

 

SHAWN E. RHEA
is a journalist, essayist, poet, and fiction writer. Her work has been featured in
Anansi: Fiction of the African Diaspora, The Source, Essence, Black Enterprise, Teen People,
BET.com
,
and the
New Orleans Times Picayune
. A graduate of Howard University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she is currently completing the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund's forthcoming book
I'll Find a Way or Make One: A History of Historically Black Colleges and Universities
. A Detroit native, Rhea lives and writes variously in New York City and Detroit.

 

KIINI IBURA SALAAM
is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans. Her fiction has been anthologized in
Black Silk, When Butterflies Kiss, Dark Matter,
and
Dark Eros
. Her essays have been published in
Role Call, Men We Cherish, Utne Reader, Essence,
and
Ms
. She is currently crafting her first novel,
Bloodlines,
a collection of erotic short stories. She is the author of the KIS.list, a weekly e-report on life as a writer. Her work can be accessed at
www.kiiniibura.com
. She lives in Brooklyn.

 

DONNA SHERARD
holds an M.P.H. degree in reproductive health, with a paricular interest in HIV prevention and education for women of color. She lives in Kampala, Uganda, writing and working in reproductive health programming and policy for women in East Africa.

 

FOLADE MONDISA SPEAKS-LOVE,
a poet and painter, received an M.F.A. degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A Cave Canem fellow, she has published in such visual art and literary journals as
Nexus: Literary and Art Journal
and
Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam,
as well as on a CD of poetry and sound about Jean-Michel Basquiat. She is cofounder of the Chicago-based multimedia artist collective
ink and image productions
.

 

KIMBERLEY WHITE
is the author of the sensuous romance novel
Sweet Tomorrows
. As the founder of Kimberley's Critiquing and Consulting, she teaches writing courses and acts as a conference planner. She lives in Detroit.

 

ROBIN G. WHITE
is the author of
Resurrection: A Collection o f Work,
a finalist for the 2002 Georgia Author of the Year Award. Her stories have been widely anthologized, and she has written for the
Gay Community News, Dorchester Community News,
and
City Life/Vida Urbana
. Her plays have been produced in Atlanta, New York, and Boston. She is a vocalist for the spoken-word band Sweet Black Molasses, and has performed with Adodi Muse, Ten Percent Revue, playwright Dr. Shirlene Holmes, and the Zuna Institute. She lives in Atlanta, where she is co-owner of Kings Crossing Publishing.

SAMIYA A. BASHIR,
coeditor of
Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art,
with Tony Medina and Quraysh Ali Lansana, is a poet, writer, and editor (known for her work at
Black Issues Book Review, Ms.,
and
Curve
magazines). She is completing her debut collection of poetry. A Cave Canem fellow, she has won numerous awards for her poetry, including being honored as Poet Laureate of the University of California and winning the 2002 Astraea Poetry Award. Her poetry, articles, essays and stories. have been published in many anthologies, magazines, and journals, including
Obsidian III, Kuumba #4, ColorLines, Contemporary American Women Poets, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Arise, Other Countries: Voices Rising, Best Lesbian Erotica 2003, Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint, Lambda Book Report, The American Journal of Public Health,
and
San Francisco Bay Guardian
.

eISBN : 978-1-573-44439-2

Copyright © 2002 by Samiya A. Bashir.

 

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.