#LimitlessAfricans: PO, Afro-Queer Congolese (Shot in Brussels, Belgium)Q. How would you describe yo
#LimitlessAfricans: PO, Afro-Queer Congolese (Shot in Brussels, Belgium)Q. How would you describe your style?“My style? Wow – my style changed a lot from childhood to now. I used to receive the clothes from my older cousins, so I used to have a lot of clothes that were not mine. I was often comfortable in them. Since I was a kid, I linked clothes to music. A lot. So, when I was a teenager and started to save money (money for the lunch) to be able to buy my own clothes. I had a punk and hardcore style. But it was coming with white norms that I was not able to fit. Really straight hair to do the haircut properly. Trying to be overly thin and stuff. And even if I had those clothes and that style, people would still tell me at gigs - “what are you doing there?”. Literally. Because I’m black and I’m not supposed to be in the punk hardcore scene. A scene that can be really racist. One time it even turned into a fight… So one day - I think I was 17 - I decided that I didn’t have to fit that norm to prove anything, and I mixed that style with everything I felt comfortable without trying to fit the white norm. I can have piercings and stuff and still look African, because I am you know, and it’s not a problem. Also, because I’ve always been political, even as a kid, I challenged the punk concept and I asked myself what could it mean for me instead of mimicking the other punks around. Answers came fast. Like, I don’t like cops because it’s cool, I don’t like cops because I feel that me and other black people are over-targeted by state violence, because I saw police violence in my neighborhood from a really young age etc. At some point, I came to the conclusion that I was more punk than any other people from the scene judging me, simply because I’m black and African and queer and disabled and here. My whole life experience genuinely demands to tear down the system. Existing is a proof of it. I don’t need clothes to do it for me. So I feel free to not fit in a box but to feel my own style.”- PO (she/they, IG: @po.b.k.lomami, Twitter: @lomamipo, Facebook: Po B. K. Lomami, Website: www.turbonegresse.org)Website: www.limitlessafricans.comDonate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=48VSXUG4RBZVG -- source link
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