who we are

Group performance wasn't something we initially set out to do, but when we were asked to perform at a Black History month event back in 1999, it just happened. We decided to find a way to share the time we had been given by combining some of our pieces, and that gave birth to an amazing friendship as well as our first signature piece "No, You Don't Know Me." From spending time with each other, it became apparent that we were meant to come together. In fact, we believed ourselves to somehow be separated at birth, (even though we have totally different parents).

the wonder-twin spoken word concoction of Turiya Autry and Walidah Imarisha

We create together because, as dead prez said,
"one dreadlock is stronger than a single strand."

We speak and scream and yell because,
as Frantz Fanon said, "I want my voice to be harsh.
I don't want it to be beautiful…
I want it to be torn through and through."

We do all that we do because, as June Jordan said,
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

reviews & press group poetry past tours
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Finding each other was really a lot about finding ourselves. We were the answers to a lot of the questions we had individually been asking ourselves for years. To be confronted with yourself in the form of another human being is affirming and empowering. From the jump we knew that together we would be unstoppable. After all, two revolutionaries not afraid to speak their piece IS better than one!

Both of us grew up in isolated circumstances of being the speck of brown in our bleached out surroundings, whether it was Oregon, Germany or California. In a situation like that, being the only person of color around foreva eva, a person either attempts to blend in, or rebels. We did some of both, then settled on rebellion. The end product is an amazingly clear analysis of race, gender and class, and the way that all those blend together and work in unison to enforce oppression. As black women, living life in amerika gave us the political foundation to struggle.

The work that we do, whether it is writing, performing, teaching, or activism is all about living our lives for worthwhile ends that are not measurable in pay stubs, yet are responsible for adding to the collective body of water that is capable of altering mountains and landscapes. We are raising our voices to show others who have been historically silenced, our brothas and especially our sistas, that they can too. We are raising our voices to put forth a rallying cry, to inspire, entreat and enrage people to get involved, to free Mumia, to fight patriarchy, to smash prison walls, to love a child, to protest an illegal eviction, to cook a healthy meal, to love each other, to love ourselves. We are raising our voices because it is our most powerful weapon, and we must reclaim it.

Good Sista/Bad Sista: bringing the verbal smack-down with a single poem, flying above chains of ignorance, releasing our inner goddess in order to light pathways for those around us.

We reclaim our identities on our own terms and move beyond the growth-stunting mechanisms inherent in our society. We're done letting others tell us who we are, and we formed Good Sista/Bad Sista to let the world know it betta recognize, call us by our real names, or get out the way.