Music Therapy with Miss Moon

This one goes out to my home girl and Pirate Sistah, Toya... who just by updating her Face Book status made a song pop into my head that I hadn't thought of in YEARS.

Inner City "Good Life" (Ain't it, though?)

DOPE: "What A Woman Must Do" by Ursula Rucker

WHAT A WOMAN MUST DO

Until you walk, run, fight a mile in her shoes
Don1t you dare stand in front of me and tell me
What a woman must do
Until you have walked, run, fought a mile in her shoes
Don't you dare stand in front of me and tell me

What a woman must do
What a woman must do

She must
Swing from chandeliers for undeserving spouses and paramours
Who deny her suffrage by day, but crave and praise her womanly wiles by
night
Good enough to fuck but, not good enough to vote
She must
Go from the beauty of Africa, to the horrors of massa
Go from titties dangling bare and shameless
To being branded, licentious, temptress, embarrassed
Go from land of yams and heat hot
To land of cash crops and sellers block
Go… from God names, to no name, to his names
Go… from God names, to no name, to his names
Now Black
Now inhuman
Freedom stolen, family stolen, now beholden… but still golden
Field hollerin'… and Ain't I A Woman
Ain't I A Woman

I can see her, me
Washing dishes, clothes, and children
Making love, money, dinner, and beds
Always the first one off a sinking ship
But last in the line to receive respect

What
What a
What a woman
What a woman must
What a woman must do
What a woman must do
What a woman must do
Must do
Must do, must do, must do, must do, must do…

She must
Wipe away tears and reclaim strength
After rape, abortion, lover's betrayal, child's birth, child's death,
husband's abuse
Tricking to buy baby shoes
She must
Be called a muse
Which is just a synonym for use
Put upon pedestals
Dainty and protected
And because of that disrespected
Victorianized
Made a paradox of famous anonymity
Left to go insane with too much femininity
Staring at yellow wallpaper

Her heart
Open
Her legs
Open
Warm and welcoming
Waiting… for phone calls that never come
Waiting… for words of appreciation that never come
Waiting… for equal pay that never comes
Waiting

Waiting, waiting, waiting
Waiting, waiting, waiting

Waiting for love
Waiting for acknowledgment not judgment
Waiting

And when seeking or achieving any kind of power
Reduced to labels like…

Concubine. Cunt. Bitch. Whore. Stunt. Witch. Dyke
Concubine. Cunt. Bitch. Whore. Stunt. Witch. Dyke

What
What a
What a woman
What
What a
What a woman must
What a woman must
What a woman must do
What a woman must do

She must
Never settle for less based upon her womaness
Embrace the pronoun and power of SHE
Know if nothing else that her uniqueness is blessed
And a necessary component in the union between universe and people
Equal to man
At times above human understanding
She don't have to lay down for nothing or nobody
Her body in and out a wonder
The wonder of SHE

The wonder of SHE

About Me: So What's With the Pirate Stuff?!?!?

" She called me one night and said, 'We gotta be pirates... Women who are able to take back what's ours spiritually, to search for treasure, and share the booty." Her creation of the pirates has made me see that part of being an extraordinary, talented, beautiful woman comes from surrounding yourself with other extraordinary, talented, beautiful women. It's like, "Damn ,that sister over there is bad, and if I'm in a group that she's in I must be bad too."

-- Cree Summer, discussing how Lilakoi Moon (Lisa Bonet) created the Pirates

" Its from the deep waters that we come. And we are heartfelt and trecherous like
those waters. We come with an unflinching devotion to the mystical and to God -
representing life and embracing death."

- Lisa Bonet, defines what being a Pirate means to her

One of the things that I am most proud of in my present and future existence is my participation with Pirate Sistahs United. Founded in 2001 by Pirate Rainy Black Crow, Pirate Sistahs United was created to carry the message of pride, peace, love-power and sisterhood so openly expressed by Cree Summer and Lilakoi Moon (Lisa Bonet), and all the Pirate Women (or O.P.s - Original Pirates...as I like to call them!). The original group is no more, but you can still find Pirate Sistah groups on MySpace, FaceBook, Tribe and Ning.

In my travels, I am always asked to explain the purpose of Pirate Sisterhood, which is usually really hard to for me explain. Hopefully, this will make it easier for all to understand.

I will say this. In modern pop culture, we are bombarded with images conjuring the most hateful and superficial stereotypes about women amongst other women. It's the old myth that women cannot be friends with one another because we are too "petty, competitive, jealous,...etc.". Pirate Sistahs United was founded to dispel this myth, among many others.

PIRATE WOMANIFESTO

Pirates move on the water. The element in which the primal
feminine is at home. It seems that at sea, women have the home
advantage. Women on board ships were either feared or
regarded as bringers of luck. Pirate women were considered
especially dangerous, and accepted as leaders at a time when
women on land had been robbed of their rights and dignity. We
pirates set sail for new shores into a world of adventures.
Breaking out of structured obedience, preset orders and moral
unities. We plunge into unpredictability, danger, excitement,
dance, song and everything that strong, free, cheerful action
implies. A pirate has developed her own kind of pirate life,
determined by her self and no other. Under the Jolly Roger, the
black sea robber's flag, pirates show what it means to live in a
permanently actualizing process of individualization and
liberation. The love, loyalty and friendship that we have found
in our pirate sisterhood springs from nothing less than a serious
attempt to find a form of life that can fulfill the piratical desire
for truth and freedom.