Community Writing | American Ancestors | Channeling Black Creativity

Last Hired, First Fired

In Fellowship with the Griots, I write “To Dismantle & To Build” — A generative workshop on the legacy of Audre Lorde.

AI Image generated in Midjourney by the Author. Scarlet Ibis James owns copyright and provenance.

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Act I: (Yes, Credentialed, But You’re Black, So…) You’re Fired¹

They called it progress
when the open door whispered my name
because their polished mission statements
trembled with new words: “diversity,” “inclusion,”
softening spines that once refused to bend.

I carried a whole lineage on my back
into that glass fortress, all angles and glare,
where blackness becomes a portrait of resilience
the corridors can be admired but never touched.

In the boardroom, they recite numbers and acronyms,
program metrics pressed like pressed suits,
so certain that a table crowded with color
means their conscience is clean.