Category: Original Poetry

My directorial debut!


Hi Family👋🏾 If I haven’t already told you, one of my poems is being produced as a short play and I’m so excited! The ticket link is live for anyone purchasing tickets to my directorial debut 😀 in Philly March 2nd. I hope you can make it!

Use code TCMP32 for a discount until January 15th.

Get Your Tickets




If you’d like to support the Black woman owned production company, and place a personal or business ad in the program, you can do so at this link below.

https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?u=5209807b6a8ad56195712c698&id=20fb74be56
We would love to have your support either way! ❤️

It’s going to be a multimedia experience you won’t forget!

I can’t wait to see you there!

Love, Toni

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Original Poetry: Celebrating the Wisdom Womb

Brown skinned, bare pregnant belly with mother's hands crossed over her breasts and a white background

inspired by conversations with Clair

My Wisdom Womb

My beloved wisdom womb
surrounded by soft, brown flesh
protecting magic
forgive me for wishing you away

For cursing you and shaming you
as I wrestled you into the jeans  bought too tight just to impress that boy
stuffing you inside girdles and other undergarments 
designed to control and confine your beauty

succumbing to the misogynist media narrative 
seeking to dissolve you in the name of purity and perfectionism
I was taught the process of dissipating you 
never the power of your sacred protest

Forgive me for forgetting your sacrifice during the abortion 

The day you held and protected my first born as I laid stretched out over my mother's casket

I, for a moment, failed to remember the grace and light  you allowed when I only saw darkness
 
Growing and cradling my grandmother's eggs to bring forth life when I didn't know how I would even live

Your strength and determination to hold two nine pound babies to term
How you held my sorrow for the three who I would never see
My rainbow child still recalls the soft and calming swish of your cascading melodies /
music she continues to push out into the world on her own

Even sliced and laced after two cesarean section, you still hold move beautifully
How could I be ashamed of your capacity to heal and nurture us all
If I never cried for you, I should never try to hide you

So I vow now

No more 'Spanx' or disgusted gazes in the mirror when you show yourself to the world
You are my lifesaver
My miracle maker
My healer and the source of all my creation
I love you and thank you 
My wisdom womb

~ M. Tonita Austin aka Toni Love 10.25.24
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Save the Date and celebrate Women’s Herstory Month at the Imperfect Gallery in Philadelphia!

split photo of two brown skinned females, on the left side the woman is positioned sideways facing a microphone, has a curly afro and is wearing a red t shirt. The woman on the right side is facing forward with a slight smile, wearing locs and a flower top with spaghetti straps.

Hey poetry fans, if you haven’t been to the Imperfect Gallery located at 5539 Germantown Avenue in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, you are formally invited to come out during the entire month of March.

The entire month will be dedicated to Women artists, and if you want to see me and the phenomenal Sabriaya, (check out her full bio on her website) a poet, educator and storyteller, then mark your calendars and stop by The Imperfect Gallery on March 14th, 2024 at 6PM. The $15 cover supports the artists with work on display, the performers and the beautiful art gallery.

Seating is limited, so please come early.

I’m honored to be sharing the “stage” with all of the talented women who will be in the space, and sharing some poetry that you’ve never heard before.

Feel free to drop a heart below and share your excitement about coming. Your presence would mean the world to me!

#loveistheanswer

LOVE, Toni

Leave a comment

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“In Remembrance” – Happy Heavenly Birthday Queen B!

Beverly F. Thomas

Bev was my best friend. Although she lived on the opposite end of my block in West Philadelphia, where I was born and raised, our paths never crossed until I was in my late teens. I was the smart kid who got teased a lot and kept to myself. She got the nickname Queen B because she would walk around the neighborhood like she was royalty. She was always laughing and would strut down the street with her hands on her hips, and it seemed to me that she never let what anyone else thought about her, bother her.

I was the smart, quiet teenager with hardly any friends, and she was the loud, charismatic, funny popular one with lots of personality, and introduced me to the cool people on the block. When I was hanging with Bev, I felt popular and protected. She wouldn’t let anyone say anything bad about me and my Mom treated her like family. My brothers were DJs so there were always turntables set up in our basement, and Bev and I and whoever else came over from the block would put on our favorite albums and sing, drink beer and laugh. She wanted to be a star and she had such a beautiful light within her. We lost her at the age of 40 and I now carry her light within me. Each time I walk on a stage, I think of her and this is one of the poems I wrote in remembrance.  Happy heavenly birthday Bev!

I Remember You (basement duet for Queen B)
 
We sang into West Philly-bred microphones
Scents of stale beer and cigarettes floating under our basement borne concerts
Roberta Flack
Natalie Cole
Teena Marie
They were us we were we and we were free
Imagining concert halls filled with fans gasping for gardenia scented motions of us
We danced swaying under water pipes and wooden rafters
Dressed in summer swag, tossing braids and permed ponytails while we bumped hips and dipped knees
We were stars on the dust filled unfinished basement stage
It was all we knew
We were inseparable until you strayed
We went our separate ways
You succumbed to painful nights soaked in old men calling for you to dance again
Asking for alley romance and offering snow dust dreams and green smoke behind masks
You danced to stale music with no voice
Now you’re gone and with you our Webster street duet
Yet
I still hear you
We walk together in a parallel universe
Pushing my stroller under the suburban sunshine
I think of my sister pushing through the door at the crack of dawn
Both rising to meet our children
Both trying to define success in the way we could see
Yet
I still see you 
 
Walking alone waiting on the bus stop in clothes wrinkled in the scent of cigars and whiskey
As I secure the seat belt of my luxury car at the corner of my single home
We both sit cloaked in sadness
I walk with you though you don’t see my journey
Resting in the sorrow of acceptance that I could not save you from yours
I remember you
I see you
I carry you
I sing for you
I write for you
I swing my hips for you
I inhale smoke filled rooms and sip beer through a straw for you
I plant my feet and grab the mic in remembrance of you
You support me
I carry you
I love you
I remember you
I REMEMBER YOU
 
12/11/15  © M. Tonita Austin aka Toni Love
Toni’s Room on Amazon
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Poetry Uprising Tonight! Thursday, January 26th. Come out ❣️

Fellow Upriser,

I am looking forward to being with you at the Rebel Wind Poetry Uprising tonight (Thursday, 1.26) at Bittersweet Kitchen
– Terry Rumsey

TONIGHT! Thursday, January 26, 2023
7:00 PM Start Time
Bittersweet Kitchen https://eatatbittersweet.com/
18 South Orange Street
Media, PA 19063

Featured Reader: Toni Love – Celebrated author, performer, poet, & singer
Poet of Ceremonies: Terry Rumsey – Political activist, social commentaor, & writer

Open Poetry Reading to Follow Featured Reading

Baked goods, coffee, tea, and cider will be available for sale tonight. Please support Bittersweet Kitchen, since they are supporting performance poetry.

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Fearless #original poetry

Fearless ~ #originalpoetry

Sometimes you have to forget that you’re somebody’s momma, someone else’s nurturer, someone else’s provider, boss, therapist, housecleaner, mentor, hero and role model and just be.

Be free.

Be in spaces and places no one would expect you to be.

Hair and toes out, dancing /swaying/moving/ calling in joy

Calling in Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge, and every ancestor who conspired to form your hips, lips, and freedom.


Be seen, be joyfilled, be unapologetic

Be around people eager to give without expectation of receiving.

Just once, my beloved sisters, be fearless.

Be free.


Repeat often until it’s comfortable.

❤️M. Tonita Austin aka Toni Love (c) 1.4.23

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A Rebel Wind Poetry Uprising!

I’m excited to be featuring at the Rebel Wind Poetry Uprising held at my favorite breakfast spot in Media, Bittersweet Kitchen. This event on January 26th at 7pm is hosted by Terry Rumsey who will also be reading. Come early to sign up for the open mic. Seating is limited. There will be coffee, tea, cake, hot cider and other goods available for sale. There is no fee to get in so please support this business. They do amazing work in our community.

I will also have my books for sale and if you purchase Toni’s Room in advance, I’d be honored to sign it for you. I hope to see you on the 26th!

Love, Toni ❤️

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Kiss 💋 #original poetry

Kiss
Kiss
These lips
They are eager for your gentle touch
The anticipation of soft skin against skin
Tender
Moist
Oh how I love the sensation of your tongue
Gliding ever so slowly around my oval
Moving deeper inside
Teasing my anticipation
Increasing my drive
Feeling warmth and compassion each time our lips collide
I can’t take the multiple explosions anymore
So I moan some form of your name
Begging you to come up for air
To give these lips
One
More
Kiss


1/2/16 Toni Love

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