Finna: Poems

By: Nate Marshall

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Synopsis: Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacyDefinition of finna, created by the author: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of &“fixing to&” (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrowThese poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America&’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope:nothing about our people is romantic& it shouldn&’t be. our people deservepoetry without meter. we deserve ourown jagged rhythm & our own unevenwalk towards sun. you make happening happen.we happen to love. this is our greatestaction.