Traniesa Caldwell | Align your message with actions.

Traniesa “TC” Caldwell has been a performance poet for 14 years. Her pronouns are she/they. TC is the founder of CoffeeHouse Poets. CoffeeHouse Poets has been around for 10 years. She is also a member of The Knights & Orchids Society (TKO). TKO is a southern centered grassroots movement founded and led by black, queer, transgender, and gender nonconforming people. TC uses performance art as a vehicle for activism and community work. Her work is dedicated to community, mental health, HIV awareness, and visibility.

Special Feature:
100 Thousand Poets for Change — Birmingham
Edited by Ashley M. Jones, Laura Secord, and Alina Stefanescu

Traniesa Caldwell

Align your message with actions. Never assume that people in the communities you are trying to reach have academic language for the oppression they face. Come with incentives because free labor is an oxymoron in poor communities. I can't stress enough to partner with organizations and people already doing the work in the communities you are trying to reach. *FUCK THAT* We are not your vehicles to drive into communities We aren’t the shepherds leading you to the flocks you have forgotten We are our own saviors We would do it better had we resources but they done took that They done cooked that Barebone dry and ya’ll expect miracles We are miracles Look at the holes in our mothers’ hands Nailed to crosses of oppression and told to have faith Paying into collection plates that don’t put food onto their plates Got enough disciples in your movement When we don’t comply, y’all call us Judas At least he got paid to switch up Y’all just kill us and make us martyrs for movements that ain’t moving See us Pay us And leave … haven’t you already taken enough from us?

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