poet and activist aurielle-marie I noticed remaining weekend Saturday night time are living efficiency the place Lizzo reinvented Annie Lee’s iconic portray “Blue Monday” whilst appearing her tune “Destroy Up Two times.” As a cultural strategist, Marie famous how Lizzo used her hypervisibility to discuss the paintings Black ladies are pressured to do and the exhaustion they really feel. She talks in regards to the power that Lizzo brings to all of her performances.
“As an authorized Lizzo-sized individual, I do know what this global does to us and the way it tries to make us small,” Marie mentioned. “And the truth that she resists that and does not make herself small, however could also be in a position to articulate that have may be very precious, as it creates numerous visibility into what this global makes fats other people and plus-size other people move to. . by way of. I simply recognize that she is daring in the best way that she walks and strikes all through her profession and in how she likes to like with other people in an identical our bodies.”
Marie has been within the information in recent years for receiving particular remedy from Lizzo after being decided on as an honoree for this yr’s award. 100, which is Out Mag’s annual commemoration of LGBTQ+ artists, activists and advocates who’re converting the country. Marie mentioned they’re nonetheless discovering the language to compare the volume of gratitude they really feel for being selected from greats like Jerrod Carmichael and playwright Michael R. Jackson. Out Mag referred to as Marie “one of the vital necessary queer voices within the literary global.”
The popularity got here at a great time for Marie. It took her seven years to write down her first number of poems referred to as “Gumbo Ya Ya” earlier than it used to be revealed remaining yr. However as a result of the pandemic, Marie did not revel in the everyday milestones of being a debut writer, like occurring a e-book excursion or attending any of the ceremonies to assert her accolades, just like the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry and Georgia Creator of the 12 months. . . So Out100 used to be the primary time they have been in a position to have a good time their successes amongst people.
It used to be an exhilarating second that used to be nearly overshadowed by way of anxiousness.
“I used to be so excited till they instructed me it used to be a pink carpet match and my pleasure grew to become to anxiousness as a result of I’m plus length,” Marie mentioned. “I like my frame. I feel frame variety is superb. The fad trade does not trust me although. So I right away began obsessing and stressing about what I’d put on to the development. It were given to some extent the place The only the place I mentioned, ‘I will be able to’t to find anything else. The whole lot used to be terrible.’”
Marie thought to be now not going to the Out100 gala as a result of they could not discover a get dressed that might lead them to glance as fabulous as they felt after being selected as an honoree. So, in a final ditch effort to be promenade queen, Marie took to a TikTok to invite Lizzo if she may just borrow her. Emmy Awards 2022 glance: a purple tulle robe by way of Giambattista Valli that held an exquisite position in Marie’s eyes.
“I used to be like, ‘I’ve to invite.’ Particularly after my spouse mentioned, ‘Neatly, you’ll’t now not move,’” Marie mentioned. “And I used to be like, ‘Neatly, I am not going to head in a trashy, now not lovely get dressed, as a result of I do not wish to really feel misplaced. So at this level, it is simply going to be Lizzo or move broke.’”
If there used to be somebody who will have understood her emotions, it used to be Lizzo, Marie mentioned.
Although her paintings exists in numerous mediums, her artwork joins a refrain of uplifting affirmations in an anti-black, anti-fat global. Lizzo is a three-time Grammy Award-winning artist from Houston. Marie is an award-winning writer and activist raised in Atlanta. Lizzo stocks her superstar standing with different ladies, as she did together with her Emmy Award-winning truth display “Watch out for the massive Grrrls.” When Lizzo gained the Other people’s Champion Award on December 6, she shared her highlight with 17 activists. Marie’s “Gumbo Ya Ya” illustrates what it method to be a black and queer girl within the South. Marie could also be recently operating on a characteristic documentary about organizing for racial justice within the South.
Those are acts of neighborhood construction thru uplifting and mutual encouragement. Marie believes that neighborhood care reinforces the enjoyment this is necessary to black other people.
“What Black Pleasure has taught me is that good looks is treasured and happiness is sacred,” she mentioned. “In a global constructed at the destruction of black other people, that black pleasure needs to be accompanied by way of one thing very, very, very sturdy and everlasting, and to me this is black care. So when black pleasure falters, black care is constant, made up our minds, and absolute.”
Marie did not be expecting the video to head viral adore it did. Marie mentioned that she aroused from sleep to over 200,000 perspectives the second one day after posting the TikTok. They have been in such disbelief when Lizzo’s supervisor approached them that they idea they have been being tricked.
“I feel some of the causes I felt that manner is as a result of fats phobia is this kind of time period this is assigned to the adverse emotions and adverse evaluations that individuals have about ladies and fats our bodies particularly.” mentioned Marie. “One of the vital issues that is going together with that could be a loss of compassion and a loss of care. So, I did not be expecting somebody to care.”
However Lizzo did care. For her, it used to be a easy act of kindness.
“Concentrate, that used to be really easy to do,” Lizzo mentioned right through a instagram are living. “It used to be actually too simple. It is so simple to be type. It takes numerous effort to be dangerous. It takes numerous effort to harm or hurt people. You understand how a lot effort your day calls for to dislike any person… Kindness may be very innate in human nature. You might be welcome.”
Marie used to be despatched a get dressed very similar to the only Lizzo wore to the Emmys for the reason that authentic used to be now not to be had. However that did not prevent the paranormal second when Marie opened the package deal, which she additionally shared on TikTok. They burst into tears once they noticed her frame superbly caressed by way of a purple tulle.
“I would possibly have shed a couple of tears to your get dressed Lizzo,” Marie wrote in her TikTok caption. “Phrases aren’t sufficient, and thanks isn’t sufficient.”
Marie floated into the Out100 gala feeling magical and all eyes have been on because of the character of the get dressed. It used to be the eye they deserved, they usually have been satisfied that fatphobia did not pressure them to tone down their outgoing power. The get dressed gave Marie permission to really feel pleasure and have a good time her victories.
“I used to be so anxious about how other people would understand me as a result of I have had dangerous stories of other people treating me like I am lower than after which speaking it in some way that we could me understand it’s about my frame length and what sort of house I’ve. I occupy,” mentioned Marie. “I used to be so anxious about being handled that manner on this most sensible 100 house that I hadn’t even stopped to take into consideration how wonderful it used to be that I labored exhausting for this popularity.”
“In that room the place there have been such a lot of those who I’ve admired through the years, whose careers I’ve adopted, and actually admired and revered for what they do at their craft, and for being noticed and thought to be as their friends. it used to be simply the icing at the cake to be there in a bombshell get dressed,” Marie persevered.
As fatphobia and queerphobia put drive on large black our bodies to house critics’ discomfort, black southern artists and storytellers like Lizzo and Marie empower black other people to include their complete selves.
Marie mentioned that dressed in Lizzo’s get dressed set the tone for the brand new yr, which she is going to proceed to construct at the luck and visibility that “Gumbo Ya Ya” brings to Black individuals who have a couple of identities.
“’Gumbo Ya Ya’ is this idea from a Creole custom that explains that noise you pay attention when everybody in a room is speaking on the identical time…that buzz within the room that is actually chaotic and chattering as a result of these types of conversations intersect with every different. . That sound is Gumbo Ya Ya,” Marie mentioned. “I exploit it as a theoretical metaphor for what it method to be a couple of identities without delay. I’m black. I’m genderqueer. I am fats. I check out very exhausting to not separate the ones issues as a result of they meet every different, and my revel in is the which means of all the ones issues.
Along with generating the documentary on southern racial liberation, Marie could also be writing a number of essays on black liberation organizing as a queer girl, intercourse paintings and enjoyment as a fats girl, and black weirdness within the virtual age. Marie feels blessed that her inventive paintings turns into her full-time process, the place southern activism guides her wordsmithing skills in a couple of areas.
“The South is my spine, as an individual and as a author,” mentioned Marie. “I take into consideration the significance of being within the regional birthplace of Blackness in the USA and the way that influences what I write and the way I write. As an organizer, we used to have this pronouncing that we have claimed from Accomplice other people: ‘Because the South is going, so is going the union.’ It’s this word that implies that the South is a cultural beacon and a political pink herring for the country. As a way to be a author right here who writes in regards to the issues that topic to me (blackness, our bodies, tradition, justice) is precious.”
Marie does now not put out of your mind herself this yr. After 10 years of liberation paintings, they be certain they do not put their worth on their productiveness, particularly as they way 30 and input 10 years of doing this paintings.
“I’m really not somebody’s mule. I am not any one’s workhorse. I’m right here to create paintings that brings me excitement and pleasure and in addition as a love providing,” mentioned Marie. “Storytellers are at all times a part of the revolution. So, I’ve to do my phase, however now not on the expense of my very own existence.”