"Southern" - Alysia Nicole Harris

[@Shonneka]

I hope to one day be on her level with my poetry lol might give up

[@visualwanderlust5671]

I hope to one day gain mastery of words like Alysia.

[@RégentDeMarquis005]

I still love this poetry monolague

[@eugenehunter9044]

The concept of personifying of the southern pride was genuine genius.

[@Herschelle_Brianna]

she has perfected her skill. man this is amazing

[@armanigordon7416]

One of my favorite writers 💕 she's such an inspiration

[@sinenhlanhlamasondo5085]

The way you bring words together, just amazing

[@eugenehunter3260]

one of my favorite modern poems ....a completely natural and realistic delivery... I love it.

[@jocelynwright4018]

I can see her performing this, just as done here, on the show Underground as a sassy Southern woman!

[@georgeblack2749]

This is S++ Class! She is literally a master!

[@yanamari3692]

Alysia is genius!!!

[@britneyt9253]

Yes.🙌🏾🙌🏾

[@morganmarshall6841]

dope!

[@RégentDeMarquis005]

Still here #Nolimitforeverrecords

[@atlehangsehlare7366]

wooow

[@crdesignz9941]

I want to marry her

[@atlehangsehlare7366]

Carl Rush can I come?

[@christinael596]

I'm having a hard time understanding whose perspective this poem was written in. Can someone explain?

[@rayrayqbaby]

the perspective of a black southern girl who's judged by people who aren't from the south.

[@eclecticnerdism]

my interpretation: The perspective of the "Old South" if it was a person. The voice of the Old South especially from the perspective that was dominant in popular culture: white, perhaps working class agrarian , most likely cishet male. Aware yet proud of racial hatred as part of its identity. Incredibly defensive of the folkways that are distinctively Southern. The perspective very discognative spoken by a black women, but then she (Alyssia) is not speaking from her own perspective. Rather she crafted the popular narrative of the Old South, its prejudice & pride with the knowledge of the irony & paradox it poses for the audience to hear her "speak" from that particular perspective. Although the perspective is from the popular Old South, the poetry is reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston & Toni Morrison, two authors were & are champions of crafting the perspective of black Southern women in fiction. In their works, the ugliness & beauty of the Old South intertwine, highlighting folkways, racial (and/or intraracial in Hurston's case especially) tension, & cultural values. As a black woman, Alyssia is an heir to these authors & their prose. Even when her poem is from the popular perspective of the Old South, one that is often violently opposed & at juxposition to that of black Southern women, the awareness of black Southern women to still see & speak on the beauty & ugliness (the down to earth realness & hypocrisy) of the South still seeps through Alyssia's performance.

[@flowermoonchild6763]

deep

[@ChrolloMalloy]

I want to meet her so bad

[@vitpav1164]

lyrics anybody?

[@joelwest5541]

that was real

[@nicoleh7574]

What Nicole Harris that's my name what the hell

[@transgoddess31]

She is my new friend

[@morganmarshall6841]

dope!