The Beauty Files: Yewande Akinse
Welcome to the Beauty Files, a series where we will uncover the behind the scenes stories of our Issue 6 Beauty Contributors and what they believe about beauty as Black women artists and creatives. Next up we have Spoken Black Girl Beauty Contributor, Yewande Akinse, whose poem “Postpartum” appears in Spoken Black Girl Issue 6 Beauty.
What inspired your piece featured in Spoken Black Girl: Beauty?
The piece was inspired by the quiet, complicated truths of postpartum life, the parts we rarely name out loud. After giving birth, I felt both miraculous and undone, caught between gratitude for my daughter and grief for the version of myself I no longer recognized. Writing this poem became a way to honor that tension, to acknowledge the body’s transformation and the emotional upheaval that follows. It was also an act of reclamation: choosing to see beauty in softness, exhaustion, and survival. The poem emerges from that journey toward grace, acceptance, and the fierce, tender love that reshaped me.
How does your work explore or redefine beauty in your own words?
My work explores beauty by widening its borders to include what is raw, unpolished, and often hidden. Instead of presenting beauty as perfection, I look for it in honesty, in the stretch marks, the sorrow, the resilience, the quiet rebirths we survive. I am drawn to the moments when a person stands closest to their truth, even when that truth is messy or tender. In redefining beauty, I try to show that it lives not only in what is admired, but in what is endured. My writing insists that brokenness, vulnerability, and transformation are not opposites of beauty, but expressions of it.
Was there a specific moment, person, or experience that sparked your creative process for this piece?
Yes. The creative spark for this piece came from the profound, disorienting shift I experienced after my daughter’s birth. Holding her for the first time and knowing that she arrived despite fear and medical doubt. This experience opened something tender and immense within me. Yet, alongside that miracle was the quiet struggle of reclaiming my body, identity, and sense of self. That contrast became the emotional center of the poem. It is inspired by my daughter’s arrival and dedicated to every new mother learning to navigate the beauty and ache of postpartum life, discovering themselves again within the vastness of motherhood.
What does beauty mean to you today? Has that definition changed over time?
Beauty for me today is no longer rooted in perfection. It used to mean an ageless body, flawless skin, and a face untouched by time. But motherhood and transformation have softened that definition. Now, beauty looks like kindness: the gentleness I extend to myself, the grace I offer others, the compassion that reshapes how I move through the world. Beauty is presence, patience, tenderness, and the courage to embrace each version of myself without judgment. It has shifted from something I perform to a practice which is quiet, generous, and deeply human.
What role has writing, art, or creativity played in your self-expression and healing journey?
Writing has served me well; it has been my panacea in moments of distress, a medium of self-purgation when emotions feel too heavy to hold alone. Through creativity, I have been able to name my fears, unravel old wounds, and make sense of the shifting landscapes within me. Art gives form to what is fragile or unspoken, allowing me to lay it down and see it clearly. It has been both mirror and medicine, a place where I can return to myself with honesty and compassion. In many ways, writing has become my refuge, my release, and a vital part of my healing and journey of life.
What would you tell a younger Black girl about beauty that you wish you’d known sooner?
I would tell a younger Black girl that beauty is not a prize you earn by shrinking, perfecting, or proving yourself. It is not something the media or someone else defines, it is something you must define for yourself. It is something you already carry. The world will try to convince you that your worth lives in your appearance, but your true beauty is in your kindness, first to yourself, and then to others. Be gentle with your body, patient with your growth, and proud of your features, your voice, your softness, your strength. You don’t have to battle yourself to belong. Beauty expands with self-love, and nothing is more radiant than confidence rooted in compassion.
More About Yewande:
Yewande Akinse is a Poet and Author of three collections of poetry, titled, "The rise and fall of rhymes and rhythms" (2025) “A tale of being, of green and of ing" (2019) and Voices: A collection of poems that tell stories (2016). She also holds three law degrees.
Her poems have appeared in Clay Literary, Trampset, Galleyway, Afritondo, Shuf Poetry, The Open Culture Collective, Lumiere Review, Dipity Magazine, The Unconventional Courier, The Agam Agenda, The Creative Zine, Konya Shamsrumi, Sevhage, Moremi Review, Tampered Press, Nightingale and Sparrow, Versopolis, Auvert Magazine, Panocha Zine, Visual Verse, Pride Magazine, The Dirigible Balloon, The BeZine, Outside the box Poetry, Spirits Magazine, Unheard Stories Magazine, Genre: Urban Arts Magazine, Unclear Magazine, Broots Magazine , Beyond the Quill, Wayf Journal, Ave Astra, Cicada Creative Magazine, Poetry as Commemoration, Afro Unidad and elsewhere.
Website:
Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/ADwande
