‘To Be Black and Woman and Alive’ Poetry Video Goes Viral

By Maryann Yin 

Collaborators Crystal Valentine and Aaliyah Jihad have crafted a poem called “To Be Black and Woman and Alive.” The video embedded above features their performance at the 2015 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.

Thus far, this moving piece has drawn more than 236,000 views on YouTube. For more poems by these two writers, follow these links for to listen to Valentine’s “If Gentrification Was a Broom Then…” and Jihad’s “From My Mother To Her Late Daughter.”