Comments on Porsha Olayiwola’s "Angry Black Woman"

Porsha Olayiwola’s "Angry Black Woman"

The structure of Porsha Olayiwola’s performance of “Angry Black Woman” highlights black women’s ability to exist while also shouldering the burdens that come with this existence. Yes, a black woman can be sweet, funny, intelligent, and awkward while also being indignant and outraged about educational inequality, food deserts, gentrification, amongst the other very real threats to their own existence. It should not be so difficult to accept the fact that there are other adjectives besides angry that describe black women and that, surprisingly, these adjectives can exist simultaneously. Black women can be sweet, funny, intelligent, and awkward people that are angry, and rightly so, sometimes. --Cheaka Wilson

Porsha O’s performance of “Angry Black Woman” takes the poem to a new level. She starts off gentle and calm, then takes the audience on a roller coaster ride as her voice increases in grit and intensity. The delivery of the poem makes the poem itself more effective for the audience. —Victoria Lefler

Porsha Olayiwola’s poem, “Angry Black Woman,” is a stunning testament to the different pressures affecting Black life. One of her passionate statements about slavery is, “(I’m) mad niggers call each other niggas,” which begets the time tested question, should Black people reclaim ‘nigga’? Given this debate is such a hotly divided debate within the Black community, whose side is more valid than the other’s? —Ryan Collins

Related: 

• AALCI 2021