Darcel Rockett
It’s been a little over a week since U.S. Senator Kamala Harris became Vice President-Elect of the United States. When that news made it to poet Leslé Honoré, she was in the car with her artist daughter Sage Smith.
“I was like Oh my God!” Honoré said recalling that Smith told her to pull over the car. Smith knew her mother had to get that feeling out on paper. No paper around, she pulled out her notes app on her phone and began writing.
“I just kept hearing “brown girl, brown girl” in my head,” she said.
That poem, an original from Honoré’s 2017 book of poetry “Fist & Fire,” went viral after she posted a revising of the piece to coincide with the timing of Harris’ history-making position.
She posted it on Facebook on Nov. 7, by Friday, Nov. 13, the post had 16K shares and 1.2K comments. The poem reached young girls in a Brooklyn classroom, who were reciting it; it had young girls sending in their reciting of it, including one using American Sign Language, and translating it into Spanish, Honoré said. “Nightline” came calling, so did “Good Morning America” and by Friday, Honoré said she had just landed her first literary agent.
“I just feel ridiculously blessed and lucky and grateful and just in awe. I’m floating. I’m just floating,” Honoré said. “The phone has been blowing up in the most beautiful ways — people saying thank you, it just fills me with so much joy and pride … just being so grateful to have people feel with me. I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude.”
It’s not the first time a work of hers has gone viral — she’s had several that gained traction over the years after she posts a work of hers on social media. She said the first time entailed a poem after the killing of Tyshawn Lee. Subsequent poems dealt with the “conversation” Black and Brown parents have with their children entitled “Backpacks.”
“It talks about ‘you are my baby, but the world doesn’t see you like that.’ And how to prepare them and give them some tools to hopefully help them come home alive — this very heavy talk where you literally steal your kid’s innocence away,” Honoré said.
Then Meghan Markle became royalty and Honoré honored Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland, with words. The poet and mother of her three “dragons” has been writing with immediacy since 2016, a time when she said everyone was seeing a huge spike of police brutality visibility.
“It’s always happened and been happening since 1619, but that summer we were documenting it with such immediacy and sharing it on social media,” Honoré said. “The outrage when even with live video it was happening and still not finding justice? I was writing about that so much. I wanted hashtags to not just be something that scrolls across your screens. I wanted us to take a moment and pause and acknowledge that this was a life attached to a family, attached to hopes and dreams and so I started writing extensively about that and really found my niche in writing with immediacy — as soon as something happens, pulling over and pulling out my phone, just writing about it immediately.”
It was as she was writing about Black boys and their parents, that Smith asked her mother, where was she and her sister in this ongoing creativity?
“Black and brown women experience this too? They experience it differently, but are still experiencing it,” Honoré recalled. “It was a gut punch, but she was right. So that opened up another perspective of really digging deep and trying to connect with that. She continues to challenge me … as a parent you think you’re showing up. And when your kids challenge you to be better, it’s real. That’s where this poem came from specifically, from Sage making me pause.
Such pauses have Honoré basking in the Kamala glow. The poet and Vice President-Elect have some things in common, including attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans for Honoré and Howard University for Harris) and both are biracial — Honoré being a daughter of a Black father and Mexican immigrant mother and Harris, whose lineage is that of a Black father and South Asian mom.
“As a Black and Brown woman, as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, as the daughter of a Black man from New Orleans who descended from enslaved people — to have that lineage and to see Kamala be elected? It is such a moment of just: Yes!” Honoré said. “Growing up for me, there wasn’t an option to even be biracial on the census. So I grew up a lot with ‘what are you’s, ‘who are you’s’, ‘you gotta pick one’ and for her to show that you can be proud of both your heritages without having to explain or kowtow to anyone? This is who I am, this is where I come from and this is what I’m proud of, it is everything. And it is America. This is us. There’s so much pride in her story that I think all of us are putting our hands on, touching and acknowledging. It’s so awesome.”
It’s that enthusiasm, that optimism, that hope that Honoré expresses in her work that was evident in the videos that came in from young girls across the country. When remembering former President Barack Obama’s first time as president elect, she laughs and says it was like a scene out of 1978 film, “The Wiz.”
“There was literally dancing in the streets, people hanging out of their cars singing, “can’t you feel a brand new day?” she said. “I think the difference with Kamala and Barack is when we voted for Obama, we knew it was in the face of racism and yet there was still some dignity in politics. Since then, there was this ugly shift that we always knew was there, but just never had this type of platform. Kamala’s victory was gritted teeth and fighting really hard and anxiety and we were doing it under conditions that nobody has experienced before. This was a victory that we fought hard for and we’re still continuing to fight for. We all celebrated and took a breath, but it’s not over. Roll your sleeves up. We got work to do.”
Honoré’ recently completed her second poetry book, “Letters & Lagniappe.” Not sure yet, when it will be released, she said it’s a hefty one given the last few years of social discord, protests, and injustice. Poetry is the way she processes and while some pieces are inspirational, others are less “sunshiney.”
But until the book is published, the Park Manor resident stays excited about the possibilities of what’s going to unfold for the country and for her new works.
“Other than that, I’m just putting out into the universe: ‘Hey, President Elect, Hey, Madame Vice President Elect, if you all need an inauguration poet, I know a lady,” Honoré said. “I check a lot of boxes; let me check all the boxes and just be present. I got places to stay in DC, I’ll get my own ticket, I’ll wear my Chucks Converse)…I’m just saying, if that’s what you need, I’m right here, ready.”
