It starts the moment that she hits the stage, as the stage erupts with truth, truth and more truth, wailing throughout the entire auditorium.
“Look at my daddy and that white suit, with his big black Cadillac,” Jessica Care Moore says on stage in front of a mostly White crowd. “I will sell and publish my books and there’s some out front,” she declares. “You can buy some, but if not, they will sell, and I’ll sell them anyway.”
Moore is an American poet, the CEO of Moore Black Press, executive producer of Black WOMEN Rock!, and the founder of the literacy-driven Jess Care Moore Foundation. She recently penned the book of poems, We Want Our Bodies Back, in which she urges Black women to demand better from men. She wants them to understand that historically, Black women’s bodies and minds have been stolen, taken away, abused, molested and filled with shenanigans from men close to us, including friends, co-workers, uncles and fathers, and yet we still rise.
April marks the beginning of National Poetry Month as well as National Minority Health Month, which is a monthlong initiative to advance health equity across the country on behalf of all racial and ethnic minorities. Moore believes that both poetry and minority health allows one to heal. She wants Black women to look at how their mental, physical and spiritual health collide with the spirits. She wants readers to acknowledge that women such as Sandra Bland, was a queen of a nation of true speakers.
Moore’s new book is dedicated to Sandra Bland and women everywhere who desire to simply “…want our bodies back.”
Click continue to check out our interview with Moore, who discusses her book, women taking control of their own bodies, police brutality and much more.
