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Kikis and Conversation Give Me Life
This intimate storytelling ritual with sister-friends is an expression of radical joy
A recent phone call with my sister went something like this.
“Maya, I just had a really hard experience, I feel so ashamed and alone and I feel like I let myself down.”
I hold my breath, waiting for my sister to amplify my shame. Instead, she says,“Girl! I had a similar experience a few years ago, let me tell you about it!”
I exhale, immediately brought back into community by my sister’s mutual vulnerability.
My sister and I often speak to one another in story form. I tell her a story about my day and then she responds, indirectly, with a similar experience. We then unpack these parallel instances together and tie our experiences to one another through the lens of our shared Black womanhood. In doing this, we are engaging in mutual-sight. I see my sister fully, she sees me fully, and we grant ourselves permission to feel. Further, through our storytelling, we remind each other that we are not alone, thus rejecting the isolation of marginalization by owning our stories, together.
Upon further examination, I realized that this exchange of conversational storytelling is not limited to my relationship with my sister but…
