The Makings of a Project Queen

Denisha “Coco” Blossom

Description

This memoir narrates a powerful street tale of a hood scholar.

“The broken pieces of a Black woman.
Shattered by the neglect of a Black man.
It’s too much pressure to save her.
So, he turns his head.
Acting as if he don’t see her pain,
While all she needed was his hand.”

In her debut poetic memoir, “The Makings of a Project Queen,” Blossom relives a path of self-discovery, empowerment, and healing as she shines a light on key issues impacting inner-city Black girls today. She uses a collection of poems and short behind-the-scenes stories to take others on an inspirational journey of a hood scholar who forged her own path as a community-based educator and scholar-activist. Through the book, she emerges as a Project Queen.
Growing up in South Sacramento, Denisha “Coco” Blossom had to navigate gang territories, drugs, poverty, hustle, and power plays. She survived immense heartbreak, broken relationships, body shaming, and hopelessness. At a young age, she internalized the notion that, as an impoverished fat Black girl, her choices in life were limited. Despite these adversities, through engagement with poetry, education, street literacy, and faith, she exceeded all of the low expectations – especially those that came from her teachers. Instead of succumbing to her circumstances, she grew into a Queen. She lifted her head, reclaimed her crown, and became the author of her own life.
The makings of a Project Queen is a powerful story that will encourage women and girls everywhere to fix their crown, walk-in their queendom, and embark on their own journey to self-discovery and fulfilling their greatest life purpose.

Sujets

• Women Authors
• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 mai 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665714723
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE MAKINGS OF A Project Queen
 
 

 
 
DENISHA “COCO” BLOSSOM
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Denisha “Coco” Blossom.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-1473-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-1471-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-1472-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021922332
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 5/5/2023
PREFACE
The Making of a Project Queen is a poetic memoir for anyone who thinks they’re not smart enough, cute enough, capable enough, or just enough in general. If you’re feeling like you’re not enough, I want you to know you are enough! I want you to dig inside your spirit and find that courage that lives deep down in you. God gives us all courage, but somewhere along the journey into adulthood, this thing called fear comes to take our courage away. I am here to tell you that if you believe in yourself, trust God, and know your worth, you can live a courageous and abundant life.
At the beginning of my journey, I didn’t think I was smart enough or worthy enough to achieve greatness, but I later found I was wrong. I found out that all the tools I needed to achieve my purpose were living right inside of me. To unlock my Queendom, I learned I had to depend on Jesus, follow my intuition, and stand on my morals. My story is one of hope, love, self-harm, grief, and survival. A story of a little Black girl who fought hard to become her true self and own who she is. After leaving a toxic relationship and becoming a mother, I became a poet and queen. I grabbed my life by the collar, and I started using poetry to heal my wounds. I found freedom through the words of my own poems.
As a single mother on this journey of healing, I went back to school, created a new lifestyle with Jesus, chased my dreams, and built a Queendom. Although I am still in the process of building my Queendom because life is forever changing, I wanted to share my story in progress to let other women know the impossible is possible. Everything that you are looking for is inside of you. While you may not be where you want to be right now, that don’t mean you’ll never get there. All it takes is to lay one brick at a time while keeping your mind and heart focused on your Queendom, and you’ll discover your purpose.
Writing this poetic memoir was very therapeutic! I recommend that everyone write and share their story because this journey was so healing. Releasing my burdens in this memoir has been so transformative and liberating. Plus, we learn from each other’s stories, so we should always be empowered to share our stories. Storytelling is a building block to literacy. It promotes discussion, impacts behavior, and generates interest across communities. So, please share your story because what you’ve been through can possibly help the next person.
The world is full of endless opportunities, but take advantage of them, you have to be prepared. And most of all, you have to let go of fear. Yes, your journey to building your Queendom won’t be easy and will involve hard times, but if you keep pushing, praying, and believing, your Queendom will come!
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1       Let’s Get it Started’
CHAPTER 2       Becoming
CHAPTER 3       What’s my Name?
CHAPTER 4       Pittsburg Word
CHAPTER 5       My Brother’s Keeper
CHAPTER 6       Youth Is the Truth
CHAPTER 7       Lost Love
CHAPTER 8       A Mother’s Love
CHAPTER 9       What’s Life?
CHAPTER 10     She Ain’t Fat, Bruh
CHAPTER 11     I’m not a Playa
CHAPTER 12     Project Queen
CHAPTER 13     Slam Poetry
CHAPTER 14     Stipend
CHAPTER 15     Writer’s Block
CHAPTER 16     SAYS
CHAPTER 17     The Coldest Year Ever
CHAPTER 18     Ivory Tower
CHAPTER 19     Lovers & Friends
CHAPTER 20     Wombman
CHAPTER 21     Queen Me
CHAPTER 1
Let’s Get it Started’
Poetic Memoir
My queendom has always lived inside of me.
I was just too young to realize that I was royalty!
 
From a mob princess to a project queen, to a warrior scholar
I am forever becoming!
 
She is her and her is me.
Owned up to my mistakes.
Took some blows to the chest.
Rose above all the drama
And
Healed from the words of my poetry.
 
Through my voice,
I tell her-story!
 
Interweaving my intersectionality.
A cross between
The spirit and my reality.
Through my words
I hope you can understand,
 
I am Queen!
 
She is her and her is me.
Walked the roads
while following the codes,
to release my insecurities.
 
Claimed my crown.
No’ mo bowing down.
She’rose...
To tell her story!
 
The making of a Project Queen!

In 2018, I stood on the stage at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Davis (UCD). As I stood there with thousands of faces staring back at me, I began to spit “Welcome to Opportunity,” my spoken-word performance poetry piece that shares a small piece of my journey into higher education. This day was especially significant because I had finally graduated from college. This was an important milestone in my life because it was the moment that exemplified the fact that I had successfully connected the crossroads of my art, activism, and academics and became the author of my own life.
I am from the trenches of the valley, down a river road to a little town down under called Pittsburg, California. I was born on October 18, 1983. I’m a lucky Libra who’s vibrant, creative, and funny. I have a good personality, and I love hard. But the best thing about me is that I haven’t let what I’ve been through stop me.
In the second grade, I was misdiagnosed by teachers as having attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and anger issues. Teachers told my mom that in order to be up to speed with my other classmates, I would have to attend a special tutoring session during the day to help me with my reading. Going to school and trying to navigate with a learning disability and being a fat, dark-skinned Black girl lowered my self-esteem tremendously. I began to doubt myself, and I checked out of school mentally. I only finished high school to appease my mom and keep her off my ass.
Nevertheless, decades later, I have become one of the first members of my family to graduate from college. And I must say, graduating from college is one of my proudest accomplishments and one of the best things I could have done for myself and my son. Despite growing up in the backyard of California’s state capital, where I come from is a home for marginalized people of color. Growing up as a Black American in South Sacramento, I witnessed street violence and poverty at an early age. I had to navigate gang territories, state-sanctioned violence, and discrimination. My family was considered “working poor,” and I had internalized the notion that, as an impoverished fat Black girl, my choices in life were limited.
Through engagement with poetry, education, street literacy, and faith, I’ve amounted to be more than I was made to think I would be. Who would have ever thought that I would’ve emerged to be a Project Queen? For the past sixteen years, I simultaneously worked, attended college, and established myself as a poet and teaching artist, all while raising my son. I found my voice while participating in the Umoja Scholar and Create-2-Change programs at Los Medanos College in 2006; I made my spoken word debut at Pittsburg Word in 2009. Since then, I’ve performed and emceed numerous open mics and community events, including Microphone Mondays, Mahogany Poetry Series, Penny 4 Your Thoughts, Fillmore Festival, SAYS Summit, UCD Social Justice Awards, Sacramento Women’s March, and Mondavi’s Open Mic. I also had the opportunity to coach the 2018 and 2019 SAYS Youth Poetry Slam Team.
My journey into social justice work began when I became a poet-mentor educator (PME) for SAYS. As a PME, I’ve facilitated a wide variety of writer workshops at events, conferences, juvenile facilities, prisons, secondary schools, and colleges and universities throughout California and across the nation. I am also one of the visionaries and cofacilitators for Project H.E.A.L. (Heal/Health, Education, Activism, Literacy), which is an accredited elective class for students of color that my sister and business partne