Kay (Katie) Hansen

“That was the thing about restorative justice. It allowed you to hold two things in your head at the same time -- that butt-slapping was funny, and also that it wasn't. That asking permissions to touch somebody was funny, but that you really didn't want to be touched by somebody who didn't ask. That the girls wanted Jeff to dial back the ass-smacking thing, but they still like joking around with him. That the whole thing wasn't a big deal, and that it kinds of was. That was what community was. All those layers of understanding.”
― Dashka Slater, The 57 Bus

“And then the whisper becomes words:
'You could run again.'
'You could run in college.'
'Coach Young always said you could.'
'You could go to the Olympics.'

And that's where I smash the whisper with my fist,
because sometimes it seems absurd to wish
for things I know I don't deserve

How could I?
Look what I am.”
― Olivia A. Cole, Dear Medusa

“It's not until Uncle Ronnie returns
from the grill with the final plate of burgers,
settling into a seat at the head of the table,
that it hits me. He makes himself a plate
then gazes down the table, his eyes
coming to rest on me and Deja.

'So how is school for you girls?'
'Grades okay?'

And then I realize:
he sees me as a child.

It's like a bolt of lightning snaking
down electric from the sky. Almost
every day since I was thirteen,
since my body first began to transform,
I have moved through the world
surrounded by men trying to convince
me and themselves
that there is no such thing as too young
for a woman, or too old for a man,

that there is no such thing
as an unavailable female body.

I have been moving through the world
feeling like a glowing green light,
green for go
Go
GO

and Deja's uncle Ronnie is the first person
in a long time to see me,
not the red of my hair,
but me
and decide on his own
to stop.”
― Olivia A. Cole, Dear Medusa

“I read an article about mass shootings
and how when a person survives one
in a movie theater perhaps
they may never go to the movies again.

The wide dark,
the silver glow,
only the narrow aisles
for cover...

it's all too much.

Sites of trauma.

And I think that school
has obviously become
a site of trauma for me

but so has Kroger
and the park
and sometimes
the bus

even though it also
a vessel of freedom.

But the thing that all
of these sites have in common
is my body,
and I wonder
sometimes
how you avoid a site
of trauma when the site
is your own self
and I think the answer is
you stop thinking of the body
as yours
and maybe that makes it
easier to walk
inside it.”
― Olivia A. Cole, Dear Medusa