Vanesa Kisuule’s powerful poem Take Up Space is a celebration of women, particularly those of colour, and an ode to what it means to be female in the 21st century. Kisuule grapples with themes of oppression, the duplicitous role of women in society, and the corrosive impact of the patriarchy.
She opens with a call to action through the maxim of taking up space. She demands that women carve out space for themselves—almost defiantly—rather than to remain an afterthought to gratify someone else: ’You don’t always have to be the one/Laughing at the jokes/You can make them, too’. Her remarks of a ‘decorative nod to ‘equality’ on the stage’ strikes a chord with all women and those of colour, a reminder of organisation’s often hollow attempts to fulfil a diversity quota without any real substance. Indeed, women are trained to doubt themselves, as the idea that they are inferior to their white and male counterparts is drilled into them throughout their lives.
Kisuule dances through her verse, deftly handling topics of fashion, sisterhood, insecurity and fearlessness: ‘Believe the compliments you are given/Give yourself the benefit of the doubt/Don’t doubt the benefits/Of being the brightest shade of you’. This all feeds into her depiction of the different lived experiences of women of colour, captured in lines like a ‘footnote on the final page’ as their achievements get reduced to diversity cards rather than their own merits. Kisuule rejects the notion that women (specifically those of colour) should settle for being minimised or disregarded, instead urging them to celebrate their talents and their identity.
This complex relationship with identity and self-worth is further explored, particularly when Kisuule encourages women to take pride in their names. She proclaims that they should ‘Pronounce it with all the music/ You can squeeze from its syllables/Don’t shrink yourself’. Women are not malleable; they shouldn’t mould themselves to fit in societies that don’t adapt to them.
She emphasises the importance of choice, how women should have the freedom to decide who they are and not have to conform to a preconceived idea of what they should be. However, men are not the sole perpetrators of drawing the narrow parameters around what is ‘acceptable’. Third wave feminism is often sullied by the toxic concept that women must constantly achieve, they must be exceptional, that status is more important than character and they should strive to become a #GirlBoss, whatever the cost may be. Kisuule dismisses this, stating in a Dazed interview that ‘I don’t necessarily think it is a matter of aspiring to be a particular type of ‘strong’ or ‘powerful’ woman.’ Indeed, strong, inspirational women don’t necessarily have to be career-minded trail blazers —they can simply exist and live on their own terms. Women should not have to be the best at what they do to be valid. Women should be able to just be women. And that should be enough.
Lastly, Kisuule acknowledges that the movement still has a long way to go. There is the continued imperative to incorporate a sense of masculinity into female identities to be perceived as powerful. By encouraging women to put on a ‘pair of box fresh trainers’, it could be suggested that Kisuule recognises power remains associated with masculine energy. Within this context, however, she urges women to act like a man, as entitled and unapologetic as they can be. Her poem continues without punctuation, demonstrating how women should seek to expand and dominate their own arenas. Vanessa Kisuule reminds us that by doing so, ‘We can take our rightful place/Behind the steering wheel of the future/And finally, rightfully, gloriously/Take up space’.
