Chinaka Hodge: What will you tell your daughters about 2016?
Poet, playwright, filmmaker and educator Chinaka Hodge uses her own life and experiences as the backbone of wildly creative, powerful works. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
strewn about our morning papers,
of our sisters, spouses, small children.
when she asks, as she certainly should,
we didn't own it outright.
for every way we used our privates
that enforced them.
against the outlines of our fallen,
and moved with courageous abandon
ducked and parried,
collected death threats,
and found a running mate,"
shamed nothing but fear,
to be docile or small.
that we were women,
and some of us did not,
whether that made us real
or heir to your triumph,
teetering towards woman,
Were you fearful or fearsome?
in the year it was time?
which bones had to break?
about the arc of your brow,
already carried so much, wants to know
what light did you keep from extinction?
or were you roused?
what did you do with your privilege?
or directly into the flame?
or treat it like a liability?
of "nasty" or "less than"?
or a clenched fist?
drawn on my face like a dagger,
in spite of crooked odds.
in the company of courage,
when you just had yourself.
and the sisters beside them,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chinaka Hodge - Writer, educatorPoet, playwright, filmmaker and educator Chinaka Hodge uses her own life and experiences as the backbone of wildly creative, powerful works.
Why you should listen
Chinaka Hodge is a writer and educator from Oakland. She received her BA from NYU’s Gallatin School and studied Writing for Film and Television at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts MFA program. Her work has been featured in Believer Magazine, Teen People Magazine, Newsweek, San Francisco Magazine, on PBS and NPR, and in two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry. She was an Associate Producer on Simmons Lathan presents Brave New Voices for HBO.
She is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, was a playwright-in-residence at SF Playwrights Foundation and serves as a Visiting Editor at The California Sunday Magazine. She is an inaugural Senior Fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Chinaka Hodge | Speaker | TED.com