I choose me

Last week, we were honored to host an event at the Canadian Embassy in Washington to celebrate women’s choice around the world. Every woman has the right to high-quality contraception and safe abortion services, no matter where in the world she lives.

Captivating poet A’Jon wrote and performed an original piece for the event, bringing to life how decisions about what a woman does with her body are hers — and hers alone. Politics, stigma, cost, distance and other barriers should never stand in her way.

I Choose Me
by A’Jon

My eyes scream
A muted mouth opened, glare of a stare
Look at me
Today you will hear me
I suffer enough in my pretty
Sacrificed enough mentally to play the games of this plane
It’s like the more things changed the more they stay the same
And I speak for all women
The plenty moved by the imaginary powers to shift our life upbringings They will never understand how it is to be a woman fully

And as I speak my story of many
Know there is no excuse for my vulgarity
We walk this earth full of life in our breaths, surviving another day Followed by the curves and how our hips sway
We’re always a walking prey
Worrying that each day of our lives won’t be the same
Victimized by birth
We were already categorized because of what’s between our legs
But I be damn if I don’t live the life that I’m bound to make
Do You know how it feels to carry a universe in you to protect that and yourself every day?
And then for those women who are born into a religion and tradition force to depend on the beat outside of her own heart, what about that part?
None of us chose to sacrifice our art

We are women
Some of us having to make a decision to die Or live a life that’s a lie And I have enough breathe for the 1% of the stories from women who are in that cage
And my heart is full of rage because we have gone through decades of the same thing
So today,
I proclaim us to love ourselves
Breathe in serenity and exhale pain
I will never regret my choices or forsake my body.
I choose.
Every time.
Whether proceed or retreat.
I choose me.

A captivating Nawlins singer/songwriter/poet, A’Jon is a passionate, soulful, funky, authentic performer who expresses her music through sounds of lo fi hip hop, acoustics, neo soul and R&B. Her lyrics embrace the essence of how life is lived through her world while making the audience and listeners — through soundcloud, apple music and more — relate to her messages of love, family and personal emotions. As an alumna of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, she has performed with legends such as Bobby McFerrin, sung for Ledisi, and opened for Kendrick Lamar at the Kennedy Center.