Bassey Ikpi

Where Black Moms Matter

March 28, 2012

Apology To My Brown Boy: Bassey Ikpi On Trayvon Martin, Mothers & Raising Black Boys (VIDEO)

Friends: MyBrownBaby contributor Bassey Ikpi penned this post and recorded the accompanying video, “Apology To My Brown Boy,” for her site, Bassey’s World. She very graciously allowed MyBrownBaby to share her words and videotaped poem here. By BASSEY IKPI About ten years ago, a few years before I became a ...

July 25, 2011

{Bringing Up Boogie} Birthdays Are the Worst Days: Bassey Ikpi On Turning 35

By BASSEY IKPI I love birthdays; mine especially. Every year for the last decade, I've thrown a party called a Basstravaganza! Yes, I am a Leo. Why do you ask? I feel like birthdays are the only holiday that everyone can celebrate regardless of religion or country or culture. You ...

April 24, 2011

{Bringing Up Boogie} Jesus, Boogie & the Bible: Wading in the Sticky Waters of Religion

By BASSEY IKPI Boogie loves Jesus. I'm not sure he's clear on who exactly Jesus is, but he's fully into him these days. He gets it from my father, who is slightly less Catholic than the Pope (except pro-choice, pro-marriage equality and pro-feminist). My dad is just really, really into ...

March 28, 2011

{Bringing Up Boogie} The Longing: A Single Mom Searches For Magic In the Darkness

By BASSEY IKPI So this sadness returns quietly. Always quietly. No great trumpeting or horn blast. No drum circle or full bodied gospel wail. No stunning metaphor or dazzling simile. There is only this throbbing and distant and empty and quiet. Always this white noise of rush and tide. It’s ...

March 14, 2011

{Bringing Up Boogie} The Place From Which A Mother’s Love Flows

By Bassey Ikpi I love my son. That seems like a really base thing to say. Mothers are supposed to love their children. If you know anything about me, you know that I love my son, but I have to say it sometimes. To myself and to him. Because when ...

February 27, 2011

{Bringing Up Boogie} Grammar Police

By Bassey Ikpi Boogie: Oh, mommy! Today I saw some gooses… Me: Geese Boogie: What’s a geese? Me: Geese is plural for goose. Boogie: What’s a plural? Me: It means more than one. Just one is singular. So one goose. Several geese. Boogie: *blank stare* Boogie: I’m 4 years old ...

February 5, 2011

{Bringing Up Boogie} Ready or Not? Deciding When and Where My Black Boy Goes to Kindergarten

By Bassey Ikpi This afternoon, my father handed me a brochure for St. Mathias Catholic School. It's that time. Boogie will turn 5 next November and we've been contemplating whether or not he should start kindergarten at 4 so that he'll be 5 with everyone else by November rather than ...

December 13, 2010

{Bringing Up Boogie} Holy Batman and the Big Boy Bed: My Baby Is Growing Up

Bassey and Baby Boogie Boogie turned four on November 30th. We had a superhero party for him because he's obsessed with Batman and Superman. Or he was. The day of the party, he told me that he actually wanted a Toy Story birthday. Excuse me, what? You couldn't have said ...

December 6, 2010

{Bringing Up Boogie} There Is No Comfort In Silence

Editor’s note: If you follow poet and Bringing Up Boogie columnist Bassey Ikpi here on MyBrownBaby, you know that she is a tireless advocate for mental health. You should know, too, that she’s equally passionate about HIV/AIDS advocacy specifically building bridges of acceptance and love between people without HIV toward ...

November 22, 2010

{Bringing Up Boogie} For Black Moms Whove Considered the Cuss Out When the Playground Banter Is Too Much

Editor's Note: I dug deep into the MyBrownBaby Crates for this piece, which I gathered together one Sunday afternoon while I was fussing around on Twitter and came across poet and writer Bassey Ikpi's tweets from the frontlines er, playground. What started out as a lazy, playful afternoon for the ...