Beatriz Llenín Figueroa
nothing
prepares us
for joy
not
for burning, defiant
joy
whereas
every
single
bludgeoned
page
of history
and
every
single
dispassionate
page
of ‘political theory’
prepares us
for despair,
presages
our doom
in truth,
political joy overcomes us
because not a single page
of such history
or political theory
has been written
from within
but here,
in this ‘small place,’
where we’ve been made
to believe that
our joy was evasion,
our laughter immaturity,
our dancing backwardness,
our rituals atavism,
here,
in this insular intimacy,
revolution happens
as it turns out,
we’d prepared
ourselves,
we’d shaped our own,
immanent tools
and no master
—not even a marxist prophet—
will tell us no more
that only the material is real,
that there is only
one
path,
one
need,
one
plan
ours are
the underwater currents
the profane miracles
the immaterial signs
our bodies
are made of
paths,
needs,
and plans
you could’ve never
ever
imagined
step
aside
down
away
this small place
confronts
you
laughing
this small place
makes the revolution
against you
dancing
this small place
wins
and will keep on
winning
are you prepared?
in a state of freedom
for the PPD
it’s called
estado libre asociado
free associated state
for the PNP
it’s called
otro estado de los estados unidos
another state of the united states
but i’m in a state
of freedom
like the rest of us
marching
in the sun,
dancing
in the rain,
chanting
in the streets.
so,
The Party
is
over
done
dead.
Beatriz Llenín Figueroa’s research and creative work revolve around Caribbean literatures and philosophies, island and archipelagic studies, gender and queer theory, decoloniality, and street theater and performance. Some of her creative work in the midst of Puerto Rico’s current crisis has been recently published in the book Puerto Islas: crónicas, crisis, amor (2018). She teaches at the UPR-Mayagüez campus as an adjunct faculty member in an adjunct country. She also works as editor for Editora Educación Emergente and as freelance editor and translator. Through her work with activist collectives in the archipelago, she is committed with a decolonial future for Puerto Rico, debt relief and reparations, public education and independent art.
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