Lynette

The Power of Black Self Love: Reflections on Love and Suicide

This journal is comprised of my personal reflections on self-love. Additionally, I close read scenes for suicide as a theme in the lives and narratives of Black women in Being Mary Jane,Beyoncé’sLemonade, and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf. Being MaryJane is a drama that airs on BET. The series chronicles the personal and professional affairs of successfulTV anchor Mary Jane Paul (played by Gabrielle Union). In the show, Mary Jane’s best friend Lisa successfully commits suicide after previous failed attempts. Lemonade is a visual album released by Beyoncé in April of 2016. The visual album is divided into eleven chapters, each corresponding with a song. Beyoncé utilizes a sample from Malcom X’s “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself” as well as poems from Somali poet Warsan Shire to celebrate Blackness and Black power and femininity. For Colored Girls: who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf is a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange. Shange tells the story of Black women to glean the particularities of “being Black and female in the twentieth century.” For Colored Girls has been featured on Broadway and various theaters around the country since its debut in 1974. Ultimately, this journal explores whether suicide indicates a failure of self-love or the supreme act of self-love; complicating representations of suicide in popular culture that figure suicide only in terms of failure. The complex ways in which suicide shapes these literary and cultural works opens the possibility that suicide might be consistent with self-love, but I cannot say that I come to a concrete conclusion in the journal. See the full transcript of Lynette’s presentation of this project or the full journal

*Suicide is not the only option. If you, or any one you know have suicide ideations, contact:

  • 1.800.273.8255 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
  • 1.800.715.4225 Georgia Crisis and Access Line
  • 404.727.7450  Counseling Center (from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday)

“Suicide before you see this tear fall down my eyes” – “Sorry”

Lemonade is a visual album released by Beyoncé in April of 2016. The visual album is divided into eleven chapters, each corresponding with a song. Beyoncé utilizes a sample from Malcom X’s “WhoTaught You to Hate Yourself” as well as poems from Somali poet Warsan Shire to celebrate Blacknessand Black power and femininity.

Being Mary Jane is a drama that airs on BET. The series chronicles the personal and professional affairs of successful TV anchor Mary Jane Paul (played by Gabrielle Union). In the show, Mary Jane’s best friend Lisa successfully commits suicide after previous failed attempts.

Being Mary Jane is a drama that airs on BET. The series chronicles the personal and professional affairs of successful TV anchor Mary Jane Paul (played by Gabrielle Union). In the show, Mary Jane’s best friend Lisa successfully commits suicide after previous failed attempts.

for-colored-girls

“Dark phrases of womanhood/ of never havin been a girl” (3).
“bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical/ i havent conquered yet” (45).
For Colored Girls: who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf is a choreopoem by Ntozake
Shange. Shange tells the story of Black women to glean the particularities of “being Black and female in the twentieth century.” For Colored Girls has been featured on Broadway and various theaters around the country since its debut in 1974.


Lynette is a senior at Emory University majoring in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and Political Science.