“I hold the doorknob and I take a breath before I open the door to the world, and the minute I open, the flood comes in, and suddenly I am fighting the waves,” is how medical doctor and esteemed poet Thandokuhle Mngqibisa describes her experience in the body of a Black woman in this country.

On this week’s episode, we have a man who brings healing through both medicine and spoken word, Dr. Linda Masilela joined our madness in playing a game of “The Doctor vs. The Poet” where he was given the most outlandish circumstances and was tasked with finding a cure either through medicine or spoken word.

This week’s episode of the Queens Fortress focuses on raising boys who women do not fear. Poet, writer, photographer and performer Clear, invites us into the world of raising a son in South Africa. Clear quotes the proverb “evil enters through the hole of a needle and spreads like an oak tree,” to describe how patriarchy grows in men and creates the violent and angry men we all have in our lives. He teaches his son Lethabo to cry, to vocalise his emotions and to combat the violence that grows with men not being true to their emotions.