A great poet and recording artist spoke a heartfelt message on one of her tracks in her latest projects, I Used to Know Her: The Prelude. Her poetry in ‘Against Me’ captivated my idle time and mind as she expressed a profound dynamic of vulnerability that I’m sure many women can relate to or react to with the infamous verbal cue Black women let interject from their chest when words discover truth and reality becomes art as it projects issues we reflect. It was as if I watched her performed in a cramped arena and the audience of “bitter Black women” or “angry Black women” uncontrollably snapped and praised her poetry with a colossal, “MMM.”

Aually, the women weren’t bitter. And, they damn sure deserved to be angry; they were disappointed because men believed they were high maintenance so they were left unfulfilled and unsatisfied. Men thought it required too much work to provide and produce happiness. These women were discontinuing their practice of patience; grew intolerant of waiting while men stalled, trying to secure their company while neglecting their insecurities and gaslighting them enough to convince them they were crazy. The delivery touched the congregation with a punch to the gut; and, the revelation of numerous actualities that women constantly preoccupy their time, efforts, and care by exploring and pursuing romance with emotionally unstable and incompetent men, pierced the flesh with H.E.R’s lyrics.
“In the corner of a man’s mind, there’s a place where vulnerability hides. And, intimacy is not the act of physical intertwine, but it’s the isolation of two minds. That’s why he keeps his heart and his head separate. There’s only one he can connect with…”