Art lovers to the front please. Limited edition prints of ‘Mother in Terracotta’ are now available at the link in my bio.
Grateful to @maximushka for shooting this tender moment of Zuri and I. And now lives this beautiful ode to the chaos and the splendor of motherhood.
What if you are gentler with yourself? What if mercy?
📸 @zuwaphoto (follow my sister who is journeying back to photography. She sees people at their most genuine and beautiful core)
Have you ever considered the cost of motherhood? Softly wondered what has been given, and what has been taken?
“With our deaths
With our almost-deaths
With our whole lives.
We have paid enough.” – @beingupile , from the poem Past Due, for our Motherhood edition
Read the poem in full on our website using the link in the bio.
#motherhood #birth #blackwomen #poetry #motherspoem
Introducing “Love Letters to the Shower.”
The shower might just be that one place in your day that is truly yours. Private, free from distraction, where time almost stops… even if just for a few minutes.
It’s where we sing, think, dream, and let our thoughts run freely.
This February, we’re showcasing our love for the shower through our love for poetry.
Starting with the poet Upile Chisala, a Malawian storyteller whose words hold tenderness and power in the same breath.
Upile writes from the heart, honoring slow moments, deep feeling, and the quiet bravery of being with yourself. Her work celebrates the joy and gentleness of Black womanhood, creating space for voices that have long deserved to be heard.
We’re honored to have her words open this series.
The NMSU Foundation honors #BlackHistoryMonth by recognizing the contributions of individuals who are making history — today.
“Black girls were made for boldness and boundlessness . . .” 💫
~Upile Chisala, “Let Black Girls Be”
Storyteller Upile Chisala ’15 perfectly exemplifies that boldness and boundlessness as she makes history across the literary world as a poet and as a celebrated creative force.
In 2015, at 21 years old, she self-published her first collection of poetry, “Soft Magic,” and then her second, “Nectar,” in 2017. The literary agents started calling, and she soon had a three-book deal with Andrews McMeel Publishing. “A Fire Like You” came out in 2020.
Upile’s work has been the subject of both scholarly and popular articles and translated into at least five languages. In 2018, OkayAfrica named her one of its 100 Women honorees, and in 2019, she was named one of Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 in the Creatives Category.
Upile graduated with distinction from #NMSU and then went on to earn a Master of Science in both African Studies and Medical Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Currently, she works at Johns Hopkins University as an Academic Program Coordinator.
Follow her on Instagram at @beingupile
#AlwaysAnAggie
