Black & Poly Fifth Anniversary

What a great celebration for Black & Poly’s Fifth Anniversary! Limited edition shirts and more are for sale in our shop!

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Fun in the Sun

We spent the weekend in sunny Los Angeles. Guests enjoyed drinks on Friday night, a chilly pool on Saturday morning, and attractions on Saturday afternoon!

Fellowship and Fun

We met up with old and new friends and danced the night away. Our hosts at the Hilton Garden Inn were gracious and welcoming.

Hollywood Stars

Dossie Easton, author of The Ethical Slut, and actors from the show Compersion met us on the red carpet during the anniversary dinner. Poet Ifalade Tashia Asanti premiered her poem just for Black & Poly.

Find Your Local Group

Want to connect with B&P offline? Find out if there’s a Meetup group in your area. If not, consider becoming an organizer!

We Remain Freed

By Ifalade Tashia Asanti

Long before poly was a definition in the Webster dictionary,
Black people were loving this way
1 woman, 2 men
2 women, 1 man
3 women, 4 men
5 men, 3 women
All loved

Together
We worked

Planted life-giving food in fertile soil
Grew our passion

Healed ourselves
Shared knowledge and taught wisdom
Birthed and fed beautiful brown bodies with our spiritual food
Transitioned our Elders
Died, returned and were born again
Our erotic was as sacred as prayer
Kneeling to please our beloved was as holy as how we praised the Divine
An orgasm was a sermon speaking of freedom and pleasure to a willing congregation

As we made medicine for the roots of ancestral wombs
Worshipped the phallus as a God
Cast reflections from the walls of pyramids bearing images of the ancient ways in which we touched
Uttered invocation for the release of life lived in harmony with the universe
Back then, we did not need labels or definitions
For we were love and lived in love
There was no fear of being stolen

For we belonged to each other yet remained free
We saw spirit in kindred souls before there was speech or words
Reconnected with husbands and wives from other lifetimes
We recognized the rhythm of heartbeats in strangers
We kissed in Yoruba and made love in Swahili
We expressed our attraction through the beat of a conga and midnight dance to honor Haitian deities
We gave birth in the bellies of slave ships while our wives poured libation and lifted our babies up to the moon
We transformed brooms into sacred objects to legitimize our marriages
We raised another man’s children in the absence of their parents
And this is why Poly is so much more than a lifestyle for us—it is the flesh memory of how we survivedand thrived
How we broke bread and shared our wealth
How we baptized each other in sweet rivers
How we raised our children in safe communities
How we unearthed our purest desires
How we created art and music without paper or instruments
Turned foreign words and dry sentences into poetry
Made guttural hymns into floor-rocking gospel
Fancied our braids into crowns and turned wooden combs into Black power fists

So when they ask who gave you permission to love this way

Tell them you are the descendant of master innovators who had a love affair with the power of choice
Your chi cannot be caged
Your desires must be respected
Your needs must be, at the very least, heard
For if we respect our truth
If we speak power to our fire
If we serve our purpose with dignity and honor
No matter who is appointed or elected
No matter what laws they break or lies they tell
No matter what they do to our bodies
We will always, always, remain freeeeeeeeed!

© Noble Trinity Media, 2018 All Rights Reserved. No portion may be copied or distributed without permission of the author.

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