What is “The Interro”?

Interro is short for “interrobang” (‽), a symbol invented by a journalist-turned-advertisement exec to lure the attention of consumers. My initial attraction to the symbol began in high school when I first learned about it. Just to provide context on how much of literary nerd I was (and still am!): I actually used to own a set of punctuation mark earrings, one was a question mark and the other an explanation point. The interrobang is an ideogram that encourages me to loudly question my reality.

As a writer, I’m guided by the philosophy laid out in Audre Lorde’s essay “Poetry is Not a Luxury”, she wrote: “The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us — the poet — whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.” Though I’m hardly a poet, I agree with Lorde; I write to retreat to the parts of myself that are the most free.

Being a young Black woman, it sometimes feels like the only thing I rightfully own is my perspective. For all that I have been robbed in labor or freedom, I possess tenfold in imagination and ingenuity.

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