Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

The narrator contemplates where she learned her strength from and where she found power in her voice, believing it to stem from the women in her life. The narrator remembers that even as a child, she only played and fought with her sisters; with no other playmates, her life seemed surrounded by women.

The narrator remembers always trying to look and understand things, especially what she feels made women so special. She remembers one pregnant woman in particular, DeLois, who no one spoke to and who wore her hair natural but who did not seem to mind being mocked by the community. The narrator also remembers Louise Briscoe, “who died in my mother’s house as a tenant in a furnished room with cooking privileges” (4), but who wouldn’t let the narrator call a doctor for her unless he was cute. Audre also remembers a strange white woman who was allowing her kid to bump Audre in an airport, and when the narrator turned to confront her, she realized the woman had been beaten and let it go. Audre also remembers trying to offer her car as sanctuary to a beaten white girl running down the street one night, but when the girl saw she was black, she ran away; Audre drove on, seeing a white man catch up to the girl in her rearview mirror.