LadySpeech Sankofa: The Thriving King

“That’s when I was like, ‘You can’t ever go back; you can’t ever not tell your truth; you can’t ever not speak your story. No matter what it cost you. Both my parents have suffered their own abuse, and didn’t focus on their healing, and that awarded me with some fucking bullshit. But, being able to bring that all on stage, releasing it, it was something that I couldn’t back up from.” — LadySpeech Sankofa

LadySpeech Sankofa (she/they/king) is a force to be reckoned with and makes that strength clear in every breath, every movement, every mantra, and every moment. It has been a long, rough, and unyielding road that has brought them to this place of Kingdomhood, and yet, they remain steadfast in the pursuit of healing.

In the first moments of conversation, LadySpeech takes us to a depth so far down, most dare never reach, much less allow others to bear witness. The topic at hand is identity, and as a Black, queer, genderfluid poet, public speaker, activist, healer, lover, and dominatrix, there is so much more emotion embedded in their identity than words can truly describe. There is nothing surface-level about LadySpeech, and we dig into a fully-embraced personhood that stems from an historical and personal foundation of trauma and triumph.

“My identity is centered around healing, because for so long, my identity and my life revolved around oppression,” LadySpeech states, taking a long moment to pause while allowing the tears to stream down their cheek. “My life revolves around life, and the things that give me life. I owe it to my ancestors, my very Black and my very queer ancestors, to be defined in my joy because there are so many things hell-bent on my destruction.”

Wearing vulnerability and truth like armor, LadySpeech leans far into the discomfort of those oppressive, destructive forces, and has turned it into intense opposition to the societal construct. Unafraid, uncensored, and resilient as fuck, they have gained power in taking back that personal agency and authority over their voice, their body, and their magic.

“Our healing is our ancestors’ healing. Connecting with all of that, and the in-between story, is a horrific thing, but the story of our magic emerges from that as well,” they say.

After growing up in a Jehovah’s Witness household, LadySpeech’s dad was physically abusive and kicked them out of the house, requiring them to live at the houseless, youth shelter Urban Peak. They talk of feeling extremely isolated and craving a safe space where they could delve into a spirituality that felt more authentic, more connected, and more personal. They began to explore other realms, invited internal honesty, and discovered their own, inner magic. 

“My spiritual path really made it OK for me to admit all the other aspects of me,” they explain. “It really made it OK to be like, ‘You’re queer; you’re gay as fuck.’ From there, all my definitions from being an artist, being sex-positive, being into kink, from also being able to admit how fucking broken I was from being abused … being able to admit the pain, and the trauma, and the intersections, and intricacies really came from a place of isolation when I was in a fucking homeless shelter and had to really fend for myself.”

It was through these realizations that LadySpeech started taking to the art of spoken word and performance as a way to process, protest, and demand respect. Refusing to remain silenced as they had with their father growing up, as they had by the molestation that happened to them as a child, as they had been muted by the terror that was their life experiences, art became life-saving.

Describing the night that everything changed, LadySpeech remembers a performance of their spoken word poetry at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Cafe at the age of 17. Having already built a reputation of being a pristine, technical performer, they explain how that night was uniquely different than all the others. With the realization that there was nothing more to lose, they poured it all out on the stage and transcended their own story, reaching into the story of their ancestors, and manifesting a divine understanding of what their powers truly were.

“That’s when I was like, ‘You can’t ever go back; you can’t ever not tell your truth;  you can’t ever not speak your story. No matter what it cost you,’” they explain. “Both my parents have suffered their own abuse, and didn’t focus on their healing, and that awarded me with some fucking bullshit. But, being able to bring that all on stage, releasing it; it was something that I couldn’t back up from.”

LadySpeech’s activism and art is based on speaking that authentic truth, regardless of the outcome. They describe how there is a performance aspect to how they present story; their vulnerability is not performative. It is multi-dimensional; it is honest; it is raw; it is raunchy; it is nasty; it is sexual; it is courageous; it is political; it is confrontational, and it does not go without criticism. 

“It’s really important as a Black, pansexual femme that I’m seen for my whole truth,” LadySpeech emphasizes. “I got censored for being fucking fat, Black, and pansexual on Instagram. It’s a political statement for me to be seen as fully as I am, for me to speak my truth.”

Part of what motivates LadySpeech to be so unapologetic is the fact that they have confronted their inner self and risen above surviving, arriving at a place of thriving. LadySpeech is empowered through BDSM and kink, and asserts themself through sex work, reclaiming personal agency and power in areas of their life that were taken from them at such a young age. 

“Being a survivor, my childhood rape was particularly kink-filled, and there was a level of brutality … I was also introduced to roleplaying, so because of that, in my development, I associated violence with sexuality,” they explain. “When I was coming into my peak, I associated that in a very nasty way, put myself in some fucked-up positions, and was attracting people who were there to take advantage of me. So, kink helped me, along with therapy and spiritual healing; it gave me an outlet for that.” 

“It’s really important as a Black, pansexual femme that I’m seen for my whole truth.”

Now, LadySpeech can act out those scenes with boundaries that don’t re-traumatize them, and they explain that in the event that it does trigger a traumatizing moment, there is a space where they can work through it. Healing through sex positivity and kink, Lady Speech sees working with their clients in the sex-work realm as a form of reparations.  

In their sex work, LadySpeech does not charge Black and Indigenous people for these scenes, but they do charge white people; the reason being that they do a lot of ancestral work and address privilege through this spiritual and monetary exchange. 

“As a witch, as a healer, as a priestess, I actually have some sex magic workshops, and part of that is about using sex to access different parts of our psyche to address things. There’s a lot of work that I do around power dynamics.

“It’s a space where I’m very clear with my clients that there is a reason why they are called to me; we’re here to work some things out. We agree spiritually their ancestors did some shit, so we’re gonna address that. Kink is a space where people get real vulnerable, and a lot of truth can be addressed and spoken,” they say.

For photographer Julius Garrido, he saw the strength, the courage, the bravery, the unashamed ferocity in LadySpeech and knew he wanted to feature her in the “Fierce Femmes” issue of OFM. 

“LadySpeech brings to the table this fresh perspective on self-awareness, affirmation, appreciation to your body,” he says. “She’s changing that self-perception, like, ‘Be who you are.’ They’re for self-appreciation, and their energy is what we need right now.”

Garrido explains that LadySpeech was a unique type of model because they walked in with no barriers, no walls to have to push through; they were comfortable with themselves, and that was easy to capture on film.

“Their aura was helping the collaboration; they send out this emotionality, which is like a gift to the people that they can feed upon,” he explains.

Grabbing spontaneous snapshots became a fast-paced game between the two, encapsulating the various sides, personalities, and expressions that LadySpeech evokes in their poetry and art. While the pandemic and the civil rights movement of 2020 still weigh heavily on all of us, the pair were able to unveil tenderness, softness, playfulness, sensitivity, and wildness. Never bashful, the images convey the heedless confidence that LadySpeech embodies. 

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“I’m gonna live this shit out loud. I’m gonna live the fuck out loud and be unapologetic because that’s what the hell it takes,” LadySpeech affirms. “I see what happens when you die and they misrepresent your story. I’m gonna leave as much evidence as possible, like this was the true, the good, the bad, the ugly of it, the glittery, and the gritty, and the pretty, and the ghetto, and the bougie; all of this is what it is, and it’s a beautiful thing to fucking behold.”

Allowing the gift of life, community, love, and support, there also comes the need to accept the bad, the need to make space for the ugly, and to make space for mending the pain. LadySpeech finds the balance of understanding that the nasty doesn’t cancel out the beauty, and we must embrace it all in order to thrive.

“Being able to partake in your joy, being able to partake in your love, being able to partake in your softness. Being able to have times in spaces where your trauma, your oppression, your mental health and things aren’t centered; when there is an innocence that is rediscovered. When we can begin to recover these parts of ourselves that indicate a life that is thriving.”

*Photos by Julius Garrido for OFM