Solange Moon Performance on SNL<\/a><\/p>\nAfter our last class, I\u2019ve been very interest in the concept of the \u201cmoon\u201d in Shange\u2019s work. In our last class, we talked about the representation of the \u201cmoon\u201d in <\/span>Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo. <\/span><\/i>In that text, the \u201cmoon\u201d had two meanings that existed in a dichotomy. This dichotomy, which I came to understand as \u201cSouth vs North\u201d, lives throughout the text. The \u201cSouth\u201d moon is spiritual and lives internally, often inside women as a healing force. This moon is related to themes of cycles, menstruation, transformation, and magic. The \u201cNorth\u201d moon is external, relating to themes of technology, moving away from tradition, and social mobility. It\u2019s a destination, a place to land. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The idea of the moon returns in the text for this week in the poem \u201cWe Need A God Who Bleeds Now\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u201cwe need a god who bleeds now<\/span><\/p>\na god whose wounds are not<\/span><\/p>\nsome small male vengeance<\/span><\/p>\nsome pitiful concession to humility<\/span><\/p>\na desert swept with dryin marrow in honor of the lord<\/span><\/p>\nwe need a god who bleeds<\/span><\/p>\nspreads her lunar vulva & showers us in shades of scarlet<\/span><\/p>\nthick & warm like the breath of her<\/span><\/p>\nour mothers tearing to let us in<\/span><\/p>\nthis place breaks open<\/span><\/p>\nlike our mothers bleeding<\/span><\/p>\nthe planet is heaving mourning our ignorance<\/span><\/p>\nthe moon tugs the seas<\/span><\/p>\nto hold her\/to hold her<\/span><\/p>\nembrace swelling hills\/i am<\/span><\/p>\nnot wounded i am bleeding to life <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Here, rather than moon representing an internal healing spirit present in women or a destination for the black race to strive towards, it becomes an external healing life force that can affect us all. This representation is most similar to the \u201cSouth\u201d moon in <\/span>Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo<\/span><\/i>. This moon is a god, or spirit, who is female that can direct us all towards healing. This concept reminded me of Solange\u2019s SNL performance of Crane\u2019s In The Sky, a song we have already discussed connects to black women\u2019s search for healing. In this performance, a moon hangs behind her as she is dressed as a god-like female moon figure. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
In the poem, Shange argues \u201cwe need a god who bleeds now, a god whose wounds are not some small male vengeance\u201d. This god is described to have a \u201clunar vulva\u201d. A connection is drawn again between the concept of the moon and menstruation. In a very cisnormative sense, Shange argues that men bleed from violence, while women bleed from menstruation. Therefore, when men bleed, they are connected to death, while when women bleed, they are connected to life. Through her \u201cscarlet showers\u201d she is able to rebirth us. She can heal the patriarchal violence that has called the planet to \u201cheave\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
God here is recharacterized as a maternal, feminine life force rather than a violent, patriarchal force that is often understood in the Christian content. God is a mother, rather than a father. This a god centered in healing. She \u201cembraces\u201d and \u201cholds\u201d, a force that lives through tender actions. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The use of \u201cnow\u201d creates a sense that this need for change is eternal. It will always be \u201cnow\u201d when we read this poem.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Solange Moon Performance on SNL After our last class, I\u2019ve been very interest in the concept of the \u201cmoon\u201d in Shange\u2019s work. In our last class, we talked about the representation of the \u201cmoon\u201d in Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo. In that text, the \u201cmoon\u201d had two meanings that existed in a dichotomy. This dichotomy, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[478],"class_list":["post-2006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-blogpost","tag-weneedagodwhobleedsnowsassafrasscypressandindigo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2023,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions\/2023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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