Black Voice

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By: Lavanya Kathirgamanathan

She walks her way

With her eyes glistening

The way that she speaks

Everyone is listening

Embracing her curls

As the wind grazes across her face

People are staring at her

When she wears that red lace.

She feels flustered

With every step she takes

The men are whistling at her

She needs a break

Sipping tea while she sits

With her beautiful lips

Feeling calm and relieved

While gripping on her hips.

The walk continues

As she is with her thoughts

Sometimes I feel beautiful

Sometimes I am lost

My mother gave me her beauty

Grandma did too…

I can not hate on myself

I am a beautiful living truth.


Skin Colour:

By: Lavanya Kathirgamanathan

When I was nine

Someone told me

I was too dark to be on their team.

I was confused and sad

So, I wrote out my feelings

And it still continued to bother me.

I woke up the next day,

Avoiding that someone

Until they came up to me and handed me this cream.

My mom makes me wear this,

Bottle labeled as ‘Fair and Lovely’

It is supposed to make you look lighter.

I was holding in this scream.

I went into the washroom and cried

And realized I was not accepted

I pretended to be sick to prevent school

And started applying this cream, consistently.

I broke out in patches

Itches, scars, and burns.

Made me realise this cream was destroying me

It was getting worse and worse.

I decided to be alone

For the rest of the school semester.

I hated myself

I gave in, surrendered.

I took some time to think

About that Fair and Lovely cream.

Told myself this is not me

To listen to these things.

Next year

I woke up
I told myself to never listen to anyone

And I spoke up.

I gave back their Fair and Lovely

That I kept

And told that someone

To never disrespect.

From that moment on,

I realized

No one can compete.

If you want to talk about my skin colour,

Make sure you

Think

Before

You

Speak.

My dark skin is beautiful,

A one of a kind creation.

All my BIPOC community

Stand by each other

And fight this discrimination.

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Lavanya Kathirgamanathan is one of the Writers for this year’s publication at Black Voice. She’s a recent graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University, where she studied Journalism and will further her education in Human Resources at George Brown College. Lavanya has experience writing for multiple publications and has her own food blog on social media. Lavanya’s main goal as a writer for the Black Voice publication is to showcase Black excellence within the community, and in the city of Toronto.

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