By Alexandra Rosado-Román
From our unending struggles to our resilient spirit
From our history of oppression to our decolonized imaginaries
From the pain inflicted upon our bodies to our creative and agential embodiment
Our blackness is beautiful and cannot be taken for granted
From the rejection of our features to our empowered aesthetics
From our submission to patriarchy to our combative feminist resilience
From the tamable conscience to our untamable fierceness
Our blackness is beautiful and cannot be taken for granted
From our colonial past to our neocolonial present
From our ancestors struggles to our present utopias
From our contradicted pride and half-assertions
Our blackness is beautiful and cannot be taken for granted
From the historical narrative to rescued storytelling
From our aggravating frustrations to our courage to overcome
From the legacy of marginality to our complex Afro-Puerto Rican identity
Our blackness is beautiful and cannot be taken for granted
From our broken self-notions through the process of still becoming
Our blackness is beautiful and cannot be taken for granted
Once again and never cease to say
Our blackness is beautiful and cannot be taken for granted
Alexandra Rosado-Román is a graduate Afro-Puerto Rican student with an M.A. in Religion from the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico and a Masters in Theological Arts with a concentration on Women, Gender and Sexuality from Drew Theological School. Her research interests focus on topics such as race, body politics, gender, sexuality, citizenship, Caribbean studies, and decolonial theory, all with a particular focus on Afro-Puerto Rican women. Alexandra is an Administrative member in Interreligious Women’s Collective Network in Puerto Rico; she is a member of the Pastoral of Women and Gender Justice from the Latin-Americans Council of Churches and a member of the Feminist Studies in Religion committee.
Alexandra has been awarded for her ecumenical engagement and interfaith work, with an honorific distinction at the Master’s Degree final examination tests, and with a Medal for the Best Monographic Investigation Work for M.A. students. At Drew, she received the Patricia Wickham Prize for Feminist/Womanist Scholarship granted by Drew Theological School, a prize that acknowledges the overall excellence and creativity in feminist/womanist work. In her poetry, she has found a platform to promote a political education to challenge neoliberal, colonial, and normative currents around Puerto Rico, and to also to celebrate with joy, inclusion and intentionality the Afro-Puerto Rican heritage as one of many voices that promote a culture of resistance. Currently, Alexandra is pursuing a Ph.D. in Social Ethics at Vanderbilt Divinity School.