Skip to Content

dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/dem Blessings #34

By Sharon Bridgforth

Remember.

You were wild
and you were free
and you felt unloved
and unseen
and you ran the streets
and you Loved hard
and you were Loved deeply
and you were cared for
and you were neglected
and you didn’t know how to process your feelings
and you were unkind sometimes
and you received Grace
and you did great
and you failed
and you hurt others
and were hurt
and you healed
and all of this is true
at the same time

and you Shine
 

 

 

 

Listen as Sharon Bridgforth reads “dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/dem Blessings #34.”
Added: Thursday, July 20, 2023  /  Used with permission.
Sharon Bridgforth

A 2023 United States Artists Fellow and a 2022 Winner of Yale's Windham Campbell Prize in Drama, Sharon Bridgforth is a 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member and a 2022-2023 McKnight National Fellow. A Doris Duke Artist, Sharon has received support from Creative Capital, MAP Fund and the National Performance Network. dem Blessings are in connection with dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show, which is streaming on the Twin Cities PBS platform. Her work is featured in The Yale Review, Teaching Black, Mouths of Rain and a special issue of Feminist Studies, honoring 40 years of This Bridge Called My Back and But Some of Us Are Brave. Her newest works are published by 53rd State Press. To learn more, visit Sharon's website.

Image Description: Sharon Bridgforth, an African-American many-gendered person, in front of a tan wall with close cropped hair. She wears a blue shirt with a black shirt underneath and silver earrings. Sharon faces the right and smiles while gazing upwards.

Other poems by this author

Back to top