Black Girl Unlimited: Lessons 10–14

We compel him to bend to our will.

After a few seconds, a man in a white shirt begins to slowly materialize on the screen.

I can see that they seem to be reaching for their education with a new vigor and hopefulness, but they are still struggling with the same addictions they had before the miracle.

I follow him meekly up the stairs, noticing all the pictures hanging on his wall along the way.

He picks up dirty clothes from the floor, puts them in a hamper, straightens the sheets on his bed.

Does it mean completely checking out of your life, leaving your kids to fend for themselves?

She looks different and not like her normal boisterous, larger-than-life self.

The eleventh lesson of wizard training is that a time always comes, a crucial moment of knowing, when all illusions must be dropped, all masks must be removed, and the power buried deep inside must be embraced and wielded.

She was married once, but her abusive husband died mysteriously in his sleep even though he was otherwise robust and full of life.

Lawd, I knows dese must be da end of times. All da fools is finally coming home to roost!

The wisdom radiating from her glassy gray eyes and gray hair grant her a candor and freedom no one else in the neighborhood has.

I can tell she knows what has happened to me by the newfound deftness of her movements. Her body no longer moves in confusion around the room—asking What happened?—but strides with the certainty of knowing.

“A demon steals the body of the innocent, scars the mind and soul of the meek, and desecrates the temple of the sacred. He can find you anywhere. You can’t hide. He might sneak into your room at night while you sleep and find you when you least expect it,” Pastor Wallace proclaimed passionately in church.

The power of their coordinated actions makes it clear that resistance is futile.

My mother writhing and struggling to reach for the knife again, to plunge it farther all while shouting, “He was a demon! I sent him back to da light like da pastor said!”

As I get closer, I discern that the figure is a little girl.

The twelfth lesson of wizard training is this: You must choose a singular purpose, one story that will drive your life forward. Without one, you will crumble into insanity or apathy; both are unbearable.

They all look so transcendent and powerful.

I bask in all of it, marinating in the endless compassion and grace of these three ancient wizards.

I don’t think men really understand...what it takes from us, how it cauterizes the light of our souls.

My mother says the day of reckoning is coming for them.

She asks me every day, “How are you, honey?” She asks with such compassion and softness, I want to pour out my soul and tell her about all my problems...but I just say, “I’m fine,” so she doesn’t think I’m unhinged.

All our corny cheers come from popular slogans that Dr. Craven has “reimagined and retrofitted for the young generation of scientists.”

My stomach sinks as I watch subtle disappointment roll across her face.

I continue flipping through the book, pausing at Langston Hughes’s “A Dream Deferred.” The poem reminds me of my dad and my brothers and all the boys struggling in my neighborhood. So much lost potential, so many dreams deferred.

They have been diligently adding money to her college fund since she was a baby.

My pulse sporadically speeds up every time I imagine Mrs. Delaney calling me up to the front of the room.

In true thespian fashion, he tells us he will surprise the class with his creation.

When it’s Davante’s turn to go, he easily performs a powerful, moving rendition of the speech.

He is wearing glasses similar to Malcolm X’s and has also taken on Malcolm’s cadence and speaking pattern.

“It’s such a simple, yet profound, portrait of black womanhood in America. Maya’s wisdom, insight, and poetic rigor are truly something to behold,” Alexis says one day in class while we are discussing the book.

Like Harvey said, ‘All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.’

He closes by saying, “My name is Jin and I am not a caricature. I am a human being just like you, and I deserve to be safe somewhere in this world just like you.”

The class gives him a raucous round of applause as he sashays back to his seat.

What kind of dreams you got festering,
burning inside you?