for breonna

pausing the once project right now, for a little bit. to reflect and to direct focus where it really needs to be. today, specifically, on the black life of breonna taylor, an emt from louisville, kentucky who was killed on the night of march the thirteenth when the louisville police stormed the wrong house, sprayed it with twenty rounds, shooting breonna eight times, killing her in her bed.

today would have been breonna's birthday. today, she would have been 27 years-old. 

actions we must take: #birthdayforbreonna

come through, georgia

today, I voted. and I voted with my daughter who was voting for the very first time. and for the first time in a really long time, I felt hopeful. 

get out there, folks

vote 

vote

vote 

vote

vote

vote

vote

sunday seven

and if your insides are itching and screaming and thundering and you want to contribute, here are seven different organizations doing good work, hard work, absolutely infinitely essential work:

1. equal justice initiative: committed to ending mass incarceration, challenging racial and economic injustice, protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable in america (folks, bryan stephenson is doing some wildly extraordinary work) (read more and give here)

2. the king center: dedicated to the inimitable dr. martin luther king jr. and his philosophy and strategy of non-violence to eliminate poverty, racism and violence, educating and inspiring new generations (crown jewel of our city, down on beloved auburn ave) (read more and give here)

3. southern poverty law center: devoted to fighting hate, teaching tolerance and seeking justice (never has their work been more important than now, under this current presidential administration) (read more and give here)

4. black lives matter: working vigorously for freedom and justice for black people and, by extension, all people (real life boots on the ground) (read more and give here)

5. philando feeds the children: collecting donations to help pay off elementary school kids' lunch debt in honor of philando castile, who was lovingly known as 'mr. phil' at the minnesota elementary school where he worked as the supervisor of the food program (read more and give here)

6. bronx documentary center: sharing photography, film and new media with underserved bronx communities and the cultural community at large (particularly taken with the work of the bronx junior photo league and adult league) (read more and give here)

7. moving in the spirit: using dance to teach young people social, emotional and cognitive skills needed to thrive, producing resilient, compassionate leaders, wholly committed to making dances that explore issues of social justice (friends, I can personally vouch for this extraordinary organization as I've been teaching for them on and off for the last 25 years and have seen up close the good, have experienced it myself firsthand) (read more here but by far, the most powerful testament to the organization is right here) (and please give here)

we can give our money and our efforts to the good fight, we can. 

(p.s. above photograph taken in the wings of a 2015 moving in the spirit performance)

sunday seven

seven pieces that have educated me, challenged me, pushed me, moved me:

1. drowning in whiteness

2. questlove: trayvon martin and I ain't shit

3. why we never talk about black-on-black crime: an answer to white america's most pressing question

4. for our white friends desiring to be allies

5. letter to my mother after charleston

6. no, I won't stop saying 'white supremacy'

7. the first white president

we can read, we can learn, we can do better, we can.

sunday seven

"so, examine your privilege. turn privilege into understanding, and let understanding guide you toward a desire to learn. then when your insides are itching and screaming and thundering for equality, let this desire be funneled into activism." -cara meredith

seven non-fiction books to get the insides itching and screaming and thundering:

1. between the world and me (ta nehisi coates)
2. the fire next time (james baldwin)
3. the new jim crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness (michelle alexander)
4. just mercy: a story of justice and redemption (bryan stevenson)
5. the cross and the lynching tree (james h. cone)
6. the warmth of other suns: the epic story of america's great migration (isabel wilkerson)
7. let nobody turn us around: an african american anthology (manning marable, leith mullings)

we can read, we can educate ourselves. we can.

sunday seven

 
hello fine people on this fine sunday evening. here are seven instagram feeds that crack my world open on the daily:

1. everyday everywhere 
2. everyday black america 
3. everyday latin america 
4. everyday africa  
5. everyday asia
6. everydaymiddleeast
7. everyday migration

there are at least sixteen to seventeen additional everyday instagram accounts from all over and I follow as many as I can find. they connect me to the world daily, broaden my scope profoundly and bring me immeasurable joy. 

white people, we can make sure the folks we follow on social media come from all walks of life. we can. 

in the interest of dismantling white supremacy, I realize this is a fairly small action. and lord knows instagram is not the answer. but making conscious decisions to follow a wide variety of voices, get to know new folks with different experiences, fill our feeds with new stories and diverse perspectives daily, is. it absolutely should not stop here but friends, it's a good place to start.

we can

white people, 

we can read books.

we can educate ourselves.

we can give money to the good fight.

we can give our efforts to the good fight.

we can show up, march, protest, counter-protest.

we can talk to our kids.

we can talk to our parents.

we can have that one really difficult conversation with that friend, that family member.

we can have it again and again, until there's no question where we stand.

we can let them go, if we need to.

we can write letters, we can write one every day.

we can make phone calls, we can make one every day.

we can support local businesses owned by people of color.

we can make sure the folks we follow on social media come from all walks of life.

we can be quiet and listen, really listen. 

we can confront our ugly parts, the ones that are hard to look at.

we can acknowledge that we cannot change what we refuse to see.
we can change what we see.

we can take small steps.
we can take giant ones.

we can do something, every day.

we can show up, every day.

we can, we can, we can.

we can be better, we can do better. this is an understatement. 

you're overwhelmed, I know it, I am too. but white supremacy is a cancer, hundreds of years old, about to swallow this country whole. so, we can wallow in our overwhelm and outrage or we can get to work. 

I'll be here as much as I can with resources: ways to get involved, places to donate time and money, book lists, podcasts, documentaries, people to follow on twitter and instagram, personal stories. this is an action: I commit to show up. and I hope you will too. 

on silence and rotten teeth

we spent last week in southern florida. floated on our backs in the ocean, dug our feet deep in the sand, scoured the beach for shells, lined them all up on the floor of the porch each night. we stayed up late, watched a hundred movies, slept in most mornings, ate food that was not good for us. hamburgers, ice cream, slurpees from 7-eleven. we unplugged from the world, mostly, plunged ourselves deep into vacation mode. vacation mode: that magical, guiltless place. the one where you're actually allowed to sleep in, eat food that is probably not good for you, float on your back in the ocean for inordinate amounts of time, collect too many seashells.

that's where we were when alton sterling was killed. when philando castile's life was taken from him. when five dallas police officers were shot. we didn't know it when it happened, we were in another world. when I finally heard the news, I tried hard to put it out my mind lest the remains of my vacation bubble burst into a million tiny pieces. I didn't want to think about it, didn't want to believe what I already knew to be true. that these unthinkable, unspeakable deaths continue to happen in our country over and over and over again. in this, the year 2016. as I stood in the gulf waters one last time I thought, alton sterling will never stand in the ocean like this. philando castile will never float on his back in blue waters and stare up into a wide open sky.

on the second day of vacation, my tooth began to hurt. which wasn't a surprise, really, given a small piece of it had broken off a month earlier. I've been putting off going to the dentist for years. as the pain continued throughout the week, I tried to mask it with maximum doses of acetaminophen and ibuprofen but deep down, I knew. it wasn't going to get better. I could mask the pain a dozen different ways, take enough to get me through vacation but what was left of the tooth would continue to rot. and if I continued to pretend it wasn't there, it would surely become a bigger problem. unless, of course, I did something about it.

and this is where we are in this country, folks. this is where we've been for years. decades, centuries. the systemic racism that plagues this country is a stinking, rotting tooth. it's more than a tooth, it's a mouthful. and it will not change until everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean every white person, acknowledges this. even then, it's not enough just to say the tooth is rotten, actions need to be taken or things will never, ever change. there is no room for silence, friends. no room for apathy.

voices need to be used. hands, talents, faith, money, whatever we have to give. white folks, we need to use our privilege. talk to our families, our friends, our kids. for the love of God, we need to talk to our kids. we need to talk about it when it's uncomfortable, when it's awkward, when it's inconvenient. and we need to keep talking. more importantly, we need to back the talking with doing.

there is not one struggle in this country right now more important than this. not one. if, like me, you don't know where to start, aren't exactly sure how to move beyond words into genuine action, start by reading this.

black lives matter.
black lives matter.
black lives matter.