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Women's Equality Day

by Aisha Fukushima

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lyrics

Women’s Equality Day (a poem)

In the future,
It will be women’s equality day,
Everyday.
So that we don’t feel the need
To wait for justice…

Wasting time,
While we are told to measure our waist lines
Asked to fit into boxes
Fold ourselves neatly
To take up less space
So that someone else can feel bigger
In this place

why is it that vocal fry in this body
is considered unprofessional
while obama’s vocal fry is respected?
why does society often look down on single mothers
while they look up to single fathers?

When I raise my voice
and say what I mean,
without fear, or apology,
Words reining down,
loud and clear,
a deluge after drought,
i put out wild fires,
and grow wild flowers with my vocals
making even the most prickly cactus bloom

and yet,
is my thunder heard as confidence?
or does it scare folx
due to it’s prominence?

i can’t count how many mics
have gone unplugged,
sound systems overturned
when I open my mouth to speak.

for fear of the power of this woman’s voice
and yet,
I amplify
I resonate,
allow the winds and the echos
of this hallowed space to carry me,
to carry we,
for this is a movement
in beats, and beatboxes, and breaks,
that cannot be stopped.

feminism,
to me,
is just a way
of overcoming patriarchy,
a system that affects all folks
asking them to play gender roles
that are not one size fits all,
breaking down the binds
of toxic masculinity
and toxic femininity
binaries
that bifurcate our complexity
for we are not just human doings
we are human beings
& too often the rigidness of gendered boxes
tell us who we should be
rather than embrace
the dynamics of who we want to be

I for one
am tired of running into glass ceilings
and being driven off of glass cliffs
and sometimes,
quite frankly
just walking on glass

expected to take on more
while being paid even less
from the office to the home
from the mirror to the meeting room,
faced with harshness
while expected to show tenderness

some of us,
called essential workers
are not being paid enough to cover the essentials
while others make essentialist arguments
about “a women’s place,”

sometimes the glass begins to crack
beneath our feet
when we try to jump the pay gaps
within our industries

sometimes our backs begin to crack
under the weight of supreme court rulings,
about which roe can wade
in the water of our wombs.
dear, natal salmon,
it seems we have come full circle.
spawning,
swimming upstream,
trying to grow freedom flowers
from the scraps of this American dream

and i am sick and tired
of being sick and tired

& of stereotypes blasting over what I have to say
but today, and perhaps everyday to come

we can remember
that it’s women’s equality day
and the work for suffrage,
not just for “the people”
but for “all the people”
is today.
is everyday.

credits

released August 26, 2023
- production & vocals by Aisha Fukushima
- mixing/mastering and final touches by Brad Dollar.
- artwork by hc lou
- special shout out to Scott Bergstrom

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Aisha Fukushima Port Washington, New York

AISHA FUKUSHIMA presents... RAPtivism!

The "RAPtivism" album features collaborations between vocalist/emcee, Aisha Fukushima, and 20 leading political hip hop artists she met in her travels throughout North America, Africa, Europe and Asia. The music powerfully resonates with global efforts for consciousness and solidarity against injustice everywhere. ... more

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