In March I got to attend the ninth installment of the Black Girl Magic Ball (theme: Matriarchs). While I am predisposed towards events with both a fire playlist and a recommended reading list, mostly I showed up because I think it’s important to celebrate brilliant, visionary people while they are alive.

This year’s honourees:

• Qween Jean

• V

• Patricia Smith

• Veronica Chambers

The speeches were moving; the outfits, fierce; the vibes, immaculate. I am grateful to have been there, grateful for these folks and their work, grateful for places of call and response and clapping on the 2 and 4.

Especially right now.

How faultlessly it draws chalk outlines. How it gloats when something burns. Now the poet knows sestinas, caesuras, sonnets, enjambments, and the muscle of the line break. Now she can layer music over hurting. Now she can say the quiet things out loud.
— from Incendiary Art, 2017 in The Intentions of Thunder (2025) by Patricia Smith