Ramona Martinez

RAMONA MARTINEZ: Kori Price, who's actually editing our next issue, opens “Fever Dreams Mother Earth” with an incredible piece called Mama Earth Finds Herself in a Black Woman's Body. I will read a little bit:

“Mama Earth finds herself in a Black woman's body freaky friday body swap style. Silk scarf wrapped around her head, she wipes away sleep feeling the scramble, the churn, the never steady state tour de force that is a Black woman's spirit. As she moves in her new body she feels "I woke up like this" Beyonce fabulous and Cardi B "wet-ass pussy" frisky.

She touches her brown skin.

Basking in early morning light, she invites the sun's rays to crest her curves, to cast shadows on the valleys of her new blackness. She is awake and aware. Awakened by her regality. Aware that her sovereignty is tainted with struggle and strife. She quakes in the imbalance. She is only a Queen when she is not an inconvenience for others.

Mama Earth finds herself enraged. Diary of a Mad Black Woman "I'm not bitter, I'm mad as hell" enraged. Fannie Lou Hamer "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired" enraged because though she is no longer nature's keeper, she still shoulders genera- tions of defilement. A history of disrespect. She has been told she has no worth for the last time…”

RAMONA MARTINEZ: The other piece in Mala Leche 2, or one that I adore, is called Things Nobody Told Me About Motherhood by Allison Profeta. And it is stitched, you can't really tell in the zine, but it is stitched onto a cloth diaper with cotton thread. She embroidered all of the words in this piece. Just to give you a taste:

“There are things nobody told me about motherhood. Like that I can’t escape from the trauma of my childhood into a trauma-free childhood of my own making. Nobody told me about the pieces of myself I’d lose. That I’d watch as they fell away and how I’d stand in silence, a smile plastered on my face, pretending I’m fine.”