Peaches

Nina Simone's song, "Four Women", introduces four Black women. There is Aunt Sara, the slave; Sefronia, the mulatto; Sweet Thang, the jezebel; and Peaches, the angry militant. This song came into my life at a time when I was beginning to articulate how my Blackness and female-ness shaped my thoughts and dreams. In middle school I wrote and performed a one-girl piece called "The Slave Secret" for a History Fair competition and my 7th grade drama class.  As I left the class, I overheard someone say, "She's really angry!" I was shocked and hurt that my work and my person - with all of my complexity - had been summed up in one word, ANGRY, especially when so many different feelings and thoughts had been expressed in the piece. This shock, however, was fleeting. I would be called angry so often in the years to come that I may as well have worn a nametag. So, I began to think of myself as a "Peaches," and to notice other girls and women who could be called "Peaches" too.

Last Thursday night I saw a play by Progress Theatre company called "Peaches." The show was about deepening the identity of the Black girl or woman who may, at any time in her life be called Peaches, an angry one.  Of course, not all Black women identify with Peaches. This show was a push for contemporary dialogue on how young Black women think today: what we want to learn, what we;ve been through, how we see slavery, and how we define ourselves: complex, lovely, gritty, joyous, sometimes angry and so much more...

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