CAROL TAYLOR

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Silken sheets, jazz playing softly on the stereo, chocolate pudding licked from a thigh, black silk against brown bodies in warm sticky embraces. Eroticism has always played a role in the lives of blacks yet these images are rarely ever portrayed. African American sexuality is not only of an erotic fashion, but also a romantic and a playful one; it's warm sighs as well as heavy breathing. The many moods of black Eros have only just begun to be explored in movies, music and in literature with stimulating results. Obviously we're on to something.

As Sonia Sanchez wrote, we are definitely A BaddDDD People, both inside the bedroom and out. And although attempts have been made we cannot minimize the potency and urgency of our African roots. In Brown Sugar we're here to represent, to show the real souls of black folk, our own particular ardor and passion. Our soul has been on ice long enough it's time to heat it up. Erotica has long been the domain of white America. But it is no secret that we are a passionate people, from our walk to our talk. So why is black sexuality thought of as pornography, or dirty, instead of sexy? Why is it downplayed instead of uplifted? Why is there shame in the full lips, the white teeth, against black, black skin? The hair unruly, reaching up to the sky. The strong muscles in the legs, back, ass, hips, thighs, and calves, straining, the kiss of silk against hot, wet flesh.

While Brown Sugar is definitely for adults only, it is not pornographic. Some of the stories are lyrical and some earthy, some funny, others downright startling. What they share is the goal of reclaiming and redefining black sexuality—in its myriad forms—which has so often been defined for us but less often by us. Black sexuality, sensuality, and eroticism are in the language, the objects of the affection, the whispered words, and the breathy sighs. It is the movement in the half-light of the flickering candles near the sweat soaked bed. White cotton sheets against berry brown skin, a touch, a caress, a smile, a laugh. Or as Nas so eloquently put it, "Caramel kisses, for Jezebel sisters."

It may be our backbone that disciplines us and our soul that uplifts us, but it is our mind that delivers us into the realms of erotic entanglement. Our experiences, what we see, feel, taste, and smell: The sensual curve of a shoulder, a lover's scent on our fingers and taste on our tongue. The disturbing ache of desire, the magnetic pull of one body inexplicably, inextricably to another into erotic entanglement. Desire cannot be explained because it starts in the mind shaped by words, phrases, and images. We know only that it exists or that it does not. Sometimes even then we falter, our wits dulled, as our senses are heightened. No one is immune."

Read more in Brown Sugar!