Cover image: Manifestation contre les violences policières I (detail)
© Roseline Armange

Dr. Roseline Armange (Lucy Jane)* returns to the ETBP blog with a poem called "Out-Rage," to be published in three parts and accompanied by photos she took at a recent Paris protest against police violence sparked by the murder of George Floyd in the U.S.   Find the introduction to "Out-Rage" below. 

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A reflection of a week, a month, a year, a life … An endless therapy of the mind, my mind, your mind, our mind. A double consciousness... Learning to see the unseen. Learning behaviors, in-between speeches, learning strategies, learning languages, body languages. When the nonverbal is an act of violence, when the nonverbal says words more that they are. When the nonverbal kill souls.

It is a therapy of the mind, of my mind.
A therapy for my soul, your soul, our souls.
A therapy for my memory, your memory, our memory.
A therapy for our skin, your skin, my skin.
A therapy for the Soul of the Black Man/Woman.
A therapy for my dignity, your dignity, our dignity.
A therapy in memory of those life ... Millions of lives.
A Twelve Years a Slave that persists in the present.
A contemporary season of deep sorrow.

Mourning pain
Mourning outrage
Mourning our scars
Mourning
Grieving
Debriefing.

A therapy for my Black soul
A therapy for your Black soul
A therapy for our Black soul
A therapy of a global song
A therapy of a global voice
A therapy of a Loud voice.

Screaming pain, anger, and frustration
Crying pain, anger, and desolation
Crying out peace, justice, and restoration
A restoration for millions of silences
A restoration for millions of deaths
A restoration for millions of outrages.

Manifestation contre les violences policières I
© Roseline Armange

A restoration that has a name:
Justice for All
Justice for our Black folks
Justice of Transformation
Justice of Dignity
Justice of Humanity
Justice of Reparation.

A call for Rapha:
Reclaim, recover, repair, cure our national wounds.
Justice of Repentance
A transformation of the collective mind
Repentance: a meaning of transformation of the mind, the soul, and the spirit.
A Repentance of Western White collective ignorance
A repentance of Western collective dissonance
A repentance of Western collective dominance.

As the West has been a fool
For too many years
For too many decades
As the West has been a fool
For too many lives
As the West has been a fool
Of its Overestimated Cultural Ego.

As the West’s act of forgiveness starts with an act of repentance
As the West’s act of repentance starts with an act of justice
A multidirectional equation
A Multiracial equation
Multiracial histories
Multiracial identities
Multiracial cultures

In one world
In one word
Justice

In one world
In one word
Love

In one world
In one word
Peace

In one world
In one word
Dignity

In one world
In one word
Humanity

In one world
In one word
Respect

In one world
In one word
Equality

In one world
In one word.

Right of being

Right of singing

Right of breathing

So, these words arise for the desire of a new Sun, a new Moon, a New World, a New Word.

"And I say [as Césaire**]
And my word is peace
And I say and my word is earth
And I say!
And
Joy explodes in the new sun"

A litany for healing my traumas, A litany for the Soul of the Black Folk,
A Litany to unsilence many years of oppression worldwide
An Out-Rage for a New Revolution
An Out-Rage for a New Humanity.

Le Mardi 02 Juin 2020, Paris 6e. A cœur lourd, silence lourd (heavy heart, heavy silence).

*A clinical and health psychologist by training, Dr. Roseline Armange (Lucy Jane), earned her doctorate in cognitive psychology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne, Paris) with summa cum laude distinction (mention très honorable et les félicitations du jury). Her scholarship exploits the intersection of politics, race, gender, literature, philosophy, and psychology. The interdisciplinary nature of her research led her to be selected as the 2018-2019 Dubois-Mandela-Rodney Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Faculty at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). By placing non-Western academic knowledge’s and creative praxis at the epicenter of her work, Armange’s scholarly and artistic foundations challenge the cultural and Western world view.  Her career as a humanistic scholar intertwines with her artistic persona. Art and aesthetics are at the intersections of her passions for creative writing, fashion, and Soul-Jazz music. Her world mission aims to inspire and awaken the light in us.

**Césaire, A. (1970). Les armes miraculeuses. Gallimard.