Try to walk like a lady and not like the slut: Jamaica Kincaid reads her poem “Girl”

Watch Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid read her powerful poem “Girl” that, among various lessons, teaches you:

On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming

This is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much

This is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all

This is how you behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming.

This is an extract from her talk titled “Jamaica Kincaid on writing, her life, and The New Yorker” from the Chicago Humanities Festival, 2014. You can watch the full talk here.