Nya Todd presented “The air felt like warm velvet” at a Take Back The Night (TBTN) session, run by Michigan State’s TBTN Planning Committee on April 16th, 2021. I, Celeste, had arrived late to the conference and missed Nya’s performance. While I have never heard the words out loud, I have read the poem she sent. It reminds me of a book I once read, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The same type of smooth imagery that Ms. Morrison graces the pages with; Nya embodies.
Nya is featured in HerCampus at MSU’s Spring 2021 Special Edition (buy it here for $5: https://issuu.com/kay_c/docs/my_body_is_not_an_invitation).
About the author…
Nya Todd is a Junior-level student at Michigan State University. Enrolled in the College of James Madison, she is majoring in International Relations and plans to apply to law school in the future. Nya Todd has also been a member of this year’s TBTN Planning Committee at MSU and she was integral to the planning of this year’s Self-Care Day and TBTN MSU’s Education Panel. She plans on continuing with international relations, as she feels the world is full of need and repair.
The air felt like warm velvet
The air felt like warm velvet
The sun Like a beating heart
And the music went down like butter
I felt so stuck in the moment that I was sure I was in a movie
Everything was beautiful
The sky
Their skin in the sleepy sun
Their hair
Everything.
It’s moments like these when I get lost in other people’s beauty that I’m able to forget my own ugliness
To forget that on some days I do let that dark dim memory I pretend is blurry to crawl to the front of my mind
[. . . To read the rest, please go to: https://issuu.com/kay_c/docs/my_body_is_not_an_invitation)