On Being Young Gifted and Blaque in San Diego, California by Asantewaa Boykin

Youth filled

With

Pimps

Misfits

And

Weirdos

Live dynamite

And

Fine art

Sack lunches

And her

Intimate  but fleeting

Run ins with motherhood

Not to mention the occasional

Witch

Warlocks

Locs

Fresh and budding

Same as my understanding of social constructs

And cocaine

It rains in Southern California

Frequently in fact

On navy bases

Where women scream

In

Labor

And

In search of consent

Hoping on West Pack

Tracks to anywhere

But here

Asantewaa Boykin resides in San Diego, California, and is the daughter of Valerie Boykin and granddaughter of Bertha Brandy. Her poetry combines her love of words, storytelling, and resistance. She explores topics like space-travel, black-femme militancy, & motherhood, especially in her full-length poetry collection, “Love, Lyric and Liberation.” Asantewaa co-founded APTP (Anti Police - Terror Project), an organization committed to the eradication of police terror in all of its forms. She most recently has been developing Mental Health First, or MH.FIRST, a mobile mental health crisis response team aimed at minimizing police contact with those who are in the midst of a mental health crisis. Her greatest honor is being the mother of her son Ajani and bonus daughter Aryana.