Poems of My Soul(s)

In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois states, “One ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body…(Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 11).” On closer examination of duality, Poems of My Soul(s) reconsiders the notion of double-consciousness and suggests that the idea, as it stands, does not adequately speak inclusive of the Black woman. To account for the Black woman, this manuscript includes poems that point to an unresolved “tripleness,” in Black female identity. A consequence of this argument begs to question, not only the Black woman’s place in a white patriarchal American society, but also her place within the hypermasculine Black culture. Furthermore, in considering the notion of tripleness, Poems of My Soul(s) attempts to render a tripartite consciousness of the Black American woman