Back to Venus

The journey to Black womanhood. An inheritance that yields many questions, perhaps asked by an ancestor 150,000 years ago.In Back to Venus, a fat Black woman shares her grief over two powerful strongholds. The first stronghold is the cycle of oppression and trauma that her maternal lineage faced in their lifetimes. But there is another stronghold, a maniacal endurance she and her ancestors know how to channel. She has the strength that her great-grandmother’s grandmother had, and she wishes she didn’t. In the 21st century, a century marked with chronic isolation and Orwellan prophecies come to light, the idea of “holding on for better days” lacks appeal.Both strongholds -- despair and strength, are backbreaking. Living in the duality of the two reveals a chronically tired, unapologetic human being who happens to be Black and a woman. And once she navigates her inner and outer worlds, she discovers that she was and is the blueprint. Read more