Bettina Judd is a poet, scholar, and artist who in her work, infuses her interest in gender, social justice, and spirituality. She is an alumna of Spelman College (BA Comparative Women’s Studies and English), and the University of Maryland (MA Women’s Studies), and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. An accomplished poet, she is also a Cave Canem fellow and has lectured and read at numerous venues in the Washington, DC Metro area.
Bettina Judd’s poetry can be found in the online Literary Journal Torch, and in Cave Canem’s 11th commemorative anthology XI. Her research on lesbian genders and southern rap music can be found in a forthcoming anthology Geechee to Gumbo: Black Southern Lesbian Culture & Politics.
Ms. Judd’s current scholarly research explores affectivity and feminist politics of U.S. Black Women’s poetry, visual art, and literature. Her current poetry and visual art project is a series of poems and block prints titled Patient. This project explores the history of gynecological experimentation on Black women in the U.S. and the generational traumas that such practices have caused.
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There is neither shame nor disgrace in a days work well and truly done whatever the task and whatever the rank or status of the worker. The farmer and the labourer who have toiled diligently throughout the day have earned their bread and honest sleep. But the man, whatever his rank, whose hand has been turned to little of profit or value during his working hours has only earned distain of his fellowmen whom he has cheated.
Have not those nations which today are called "advanced" become so through the toil and labour of their peoples?
It is easy to begin but hard to finish...
A mature mind and a wealth of experience are needed to decide upon the time and the place where strength and skill may be most effectively combined...
Strength may be useless where skill is required.
There is no protection from the demand that a mans worth be assessed by his achievements.
Money is an instrument,but there is no duty that can be fully accomplished with its mere persuasive power. it is better to till the land rather than to bicker on trivial matters.
It is better to exploit effectively a small tract of land rather than to proclaim being the owner of vast idle land.
A purely materialistic art would be like a tree which is expected to bear fruit without flowering, sacrificing grace and beauty for mere utilty.
Your workmanship will be a moument to your name.
KEEP DA FIRE BURNIN EMPRESS UNITYS DA KEY MORE LUV MORE LIFE MORE PROSPERITY
Maybe today you shall DECIDE to love - not just those who mean something to you, or those who have touched your life, or those who make you smile when you really need it, or those who make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down, or all those the appreciation of whose friendship you want to acknowledge – maybe you can CHOOSE to spread LOVE JUST FOR its own SAKE!
It’s a new moon. Thanks for being you, SMILE and stay blessed! Nana
Maybe…you should try to live your life to the fullest For a purpose higher than self because when you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling but when you die, you can be the one who is smiling and everyone around you crying. Stay you, strive for the stars …and SHINE! Your friend, Nana
Maybe…happiness waits for all those who cry And all those who hurt And all those who have searched And all those who have tried, For only they can appreciate the importance Of all the people who have touched their lives.
hey hey girl! what you got goin here looks kinda special:)! If I wasn't in a busted hotel room right now using a dial up connection from 1996 maybe I could check out your tunes...I've been good...just back into Atlanta for a spell. Nice to see your face! Hows life?
Life’s mysteries approach our minds like the offerings of the boundless elements - Sometimes harsh, sometimes mild oftentimes confusing, always essential.
Man’s moods oscillate as these loom like the timeless seasons that feed our lives - Sometimes hot, sometimes cold, oftentimes inclement, always nurturing.
Study to be quiet as you embrace it all: the harsh, the mild, the confusing, the essential; float as you discern the graceful power inside the hot, the cold, the inclement, the nurturing.
Hey GORGEOUS!! I hope you are having a splendid post CC time. It kinda sticks with you for a looong time doesn't it, that feeling of being somewhere you needed to be.
glittering and yet not overly flashy lighting the nooks of the charcoal-blue structures of my heart with a glow unforced and a possible promise probably unintended
I cling on to the innocent air she exhales I make me fancy them like tanks of oxygen fed the desperate under the ocean’s belly
will you give me a song on which we shall dance till it’s scratched flat with time and the promise of passionate sex?!
here I sit and sigh my heart heavy with a feeling unrequited, my soul erect with consuming need ‘cause you won’t dignify my crave with a mere nod
myself I dissolve in a fuzzy haze of insignificance, my essence disappears in a fleeting cloud of incomprehension and you still hang up there, my madonna to worship
and when I wake thoughts of that precious gem linger in all the many corners of my mind do I touch the phone? do I visit at home? do I just sit and stare or hope, wish, need, desire to bump into her? then another day of torture, of pain and sorrow drags and drugs me through
so I comfort myself with song and verse invoking the gods that grant wishes and the guardians of her heart for to combine and make manifest should my feelings for this rarity be pure and true
ruby, my subject of constant desire my inflamed heart’s burning fire, smite me with a cotton-soft embrace now while I still can breathe.
from the book '.f.l.o.a.t.i.n.g.' by Nana S. Achampong
