aka Wolfwoman: A Poetic Artist's Book

Abstract

Twinned images in this visual poetic essay evoke a Du Boisian sense of double consciousness and Marasa consciousness found in cosmologies of Haitian Vodou and Yoruba Orisha Ibeji twin figures. I propose a “liberation of misfits,” through a visual poetic narrative resistant against marginalization on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, and ability. I present my poem, “aka Wolfwoman” in the form of a poetic artist’s book, featuring images created as arts-based research to support and expand upon the story invoked in the poem. The poem communicates the “othering” of an uncontained, neurodivergent woman hounded by a heteropatriarchal figure that seeks to dominate and control her. Amid the dispossession and homelessness of diaspora, I seek a sense of home situated firmly in the body. I engage with identities forged out of multiplicity and suggest the liberatory potential in misfitting.