Global City Press

Welcome to the literary metropolis.

my nyc
42nd street 25 cent peep shows
beautiful summer nights
blond, brunette, black haired sepia, blush, and red-skinned ladies
hungry and tired
walking in heels
scantily dressed in jade & sable
blood-rose & blu-violet halter tube tops
fingerless black lace sleeved-gloves
gold shimmery mini-skirts
spike stilettos and platform marshmallow shoes
ruby lipstick & cigarettes

42nd street saturday-night brown girls and group movie dates
with cute boys named james, brian, and stevie
nathan’s hot dogs, fat french fries, pastrami sandwiches, and root beer
1st base french-kisses and subway rides home

we loved & we longed
for easter break movie dates and the sunday jam at the hotel diplomat
in the early days of djs and sample-beats
dancing in stilettos and all the girls had black,
white or pink ballet slippers for when feet stood arched
like stilettos for too long and you still had to dance
cause they playing your jam


Allia Abdullah-Matta is a poet and teacher-scholar who uses creativity and artistic expression as instruments of social justice activism and transformation.  She is an Associate Professor at CUNY LaGuardia, holds a doctorate degree in Afro-American Studies from UMass Amherst, and expects to complete an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York in 2019.   She was the co-recipient of the The Jerome Lowell DeJur Prize in Poetry (2018). Her poetry has been published in Newtown Literary, Promethean, Marsh Hawk Review, and Mom Egg Review Vox.