Love Your Body: Featuring C.C. Carter

Chicana Heavyweights & Their Allies, a Panza Pictorial of Panza Positive Women

When I speak of the erotic, then I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.” – Audre Lorde

The Panza Monologues at Women & Children First Bookstore in Chicago, IL.
Spotted by Ama Birch.

Virginia reflects on C.C. Carter:

When I speak of the erotic, I think of C.C. Carter. I first met C.C. at ALLGO where she performed from her book Body Language. I followed her, on the edge of my seat, around every curve, as she traced the Herstory of Her Hips. C.C. is a performer, educator, and community activist that works her "fierceness fully." She is the erotic, sensuality embodied, from the intimacy of her poetry to the ways in which she actively creates radical public spaces for the bulldagers, the dykes, for queer women of color. I always knew I could call on C.C. if I was in Chicago. For years, she organized a women's centered community space for poets weekly in the Southside of Chicago. She invited me once to perform from The Panza Monologues to a packed and raucous crowd at Lee's Unleaded Blues Joint. A cross-cultural conversation about the body over drinks flowing. I thought I need to translate - "This is the PANZA," I said, caressing my stomach. "These are chichis," I said grabbing my breasts. "And the chocha..." Before I could finish someone yelled from the crowd, "We all know what chocha means." Cuz there are some things that just don't need to be translated!

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C.C. Carter

Chicago, IL

I am fiercely curvy and brave.


I come from a long line of beautiful hottentot built women.


I believe that the body is a temple to be worshipped no matter the size, the shape, the color.

What do you love most about your body and why? My ass-et. I love how her hands slip in along the waist and push out as they trace down my hips and thighs or along the front of my panza.

One piece of panza positive advice you wish someone would have given you when you were growing up…That the best feeling in the world is when your partner or your child lies on your panza and starts to rub it because of it's comfort and its familiarity of home (womb).

What do you call your panza?
F.U.P.A. - A Fat Upper Pussy Area


About C.C. Carter

C.C. Carter earned her M.A. in Creative Writing from Queens College in New York. She received her B.A. in English Literature from Spellman College in Atlanta. In addition to her book Body Language (Kings Crossing Publishing), C.C. is also the author of a chapbook entitled, Letters to My Love. Check out C.C. performing Herstory of my Hips on an Olivia Cruise.

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