‘BBHMM’
— jayy dodd
Why can’t we thrive in something rich and green too? And let us
be loud about it? Let us be loud without consequence.
The cynic will condemn contemporary poetry for being topical; a limited / limiting framework to dismiss urgency in documentation under the guise of a “timeless” sentiment. However, this is not helpful or critical of work that speaks to the sign of the times, a responsibility of artists always. Tiana Clark’s ekphrasis to pop icon Rihanna’s defiant 2015 single ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’, positions the subject / the poet in a reality that faces the Black creator daily. Clark interrogates the video, not with the hot-take of white music critic, but of a Black woman like the Bajan artist who fantasies the role reversal of reparations. It’s a delight, where the decadent destruction of Rihanna’s short fill excels, Clark revels in the honest & vulnerable place of imagining. It’s the demanding ownership of the body that resonates. It’s the staring back at the reader, this nation, The Man, with unfettered gaze. It’s another unapologetic voice, utilizing the present to locate the past, & possibilities of future. Retribution has never been this lit, well, since Rihanna.