Cover image: Lucy Jane at the Luxembourg Garden
Image courtesy of Dr. Roseline Armange

A clinical and health psychologist by training, Dr. Roseline Armange (Lucy Jane), earned her doctorate in cognitive psychology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne, Paris) with summa cum laude distinction (mention très honorable et les félicitations du jury). Her scholarship exploits the intersection of politics, race, gender, literature, philosophy, and psychology. The interdisciplinary nature of her research led her to be selected as the 2018-2019 Dubois-Mandela-Rodney Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Faculty at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). By placing non-Western academic knowledge’s and creative praxis at the epicenter of her work, Armange’s scholarly and artistic foundations challenge the cultural and Western world view.  Her career as a humanistic scholar intertwines with her artistic persona. Art and aesthetics are at the intersections of her passions for creative writing, fashion, and Soul-Jazz music. Her world mission aims to inspire and awaken the light in us.

"In Memory of the Past Present and Future" is the first of two poems by Lucy Jane to be published on the Entrée to Black Paris blog.

To whom we say:

We must forget, we must move forward.

You must forget?

Is forgetting the keyword to face the Unreal, the Ugly...

A Pain alive in our collective brain... collective cells?

Is forgetting sufficient for the bloody reality of the color of my skin?

Is forgetting will forget the Un-Real, the Sur-Real of our Bloody wounds...

 

Alive in the Atlantic Ocean

Millions of voices

Millions of Tears

My tears, your tears, our tears

Millions of Ivory bones...

 

In the womb of Maman Dlo

The Story of my ancestry continues to haunt my memories

Memories of twelve million

Memories of voices

A legacy of resistance

A legacy called “Marronage.”

 

Endlessly we must Not submit

Endlessly we must stand

Endlessly we must heal

Endlessly we must tell

Endlessly we must act

We must say

We must put words on the words

We must put words on the wounds

Loudly, fiercely like the sound of the waves running aground on the shore

We must Be!

We must sing eternal freedom, eternal victory!

 

To whom we say:

We must forget

Is revealing the ugly a devil sin for you?

Is revealing La Grande Histoire the phantom of your glorious existence?

Is the devil of your glorious legacy the repentance of your sins?

Is the devil haunting your universal voice?

Is the devil revealing the ugly of your humanity?

Is the devil uncovering your religious protection?

Is the devil the truth of your sins?

Sins? We were!

Devils? We were!

Ugly? We were!

A devil illusion of a racial masquerade!

A devil illusion of an egotistical position!

For light always uncovering the unseen

For light enlightening the truth of my dark skin!

For light uplifting the supreme of my humanity!

 

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

Enlightening dignity

Enlightening memory

Enlightening my invaluable humanity

Restoring my unspeakable dignity

Reviving the unthinkable truth of my beauty!

Reviving the glory of my dark skin

In the foolishness of your illusion

In the cultural bias of your dominion.

 

To whom I say:

Freedom is my truth

My brown skin is my light

Creole is my strength

The Ocean my guide

My land, my roots

 

To whom I say:

Descent of voices

Descent of Stories

Descent of Memories

Descent of duties

Descent of resistance

Descent of transcendence

 

To whom I say:

Emancipation for us!

A call from the blood!

A call from revival!

A call from Nature

A call of Power!

A call of culture

A call of the tongue

 

For,

Universalism is not my name

Universalism was a number, bleeding beneath my name

Universalism is an iron bruise beneath my name

Universalism erases my name with his name  

Universalism blemishes my name

Universalism forgets my name

Universalism is disgrace to my name

 

For,

Once they said:

France is your name!

At the cost of our blood,

At the cost of the stench of our holds.

At the cost of our words,

At the cost of our tongues

At the cost of our silences

At the cost of our breath

At the cost of our skin

At the cost of our body

At the cost of our life

At the cost of twelve million

 

And now, I say:

Creole is my name!

Creole is our tongue!

The World is my tongue!

The World is our tongue!

 

In the womb of the Ocean

In the womb of the Sugar Cane

In the womb of the Sun!

In the womb of the Past

In the womb of the Present

In the womb of the Future!

The bruise of my wounds resonates in memory of my past, present, and future.

 

Lucy Jane. A

June 4th, 2019
Up in the Air, flying to Peru.