juneteenth
june nineteenth
nineteen years – i dedicate this to the activist, Toyin.
nineteen Black breaths guided by nineteen Black genius revolutionaries. (edited to be i/we statements so that this meditation can claim for each of us all the Black magic we need)

come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me / and has failed. (lucille clifton)
caring for myself is not self indulgence, it is self-preservation. (audre lorde)
when i liberate myself, i liberate others. (fannie lou hamer)
to tell the truth is to become beautiful. to begin to love myself, value myself. and that is political, in its most profound way. (june jordan)
my purpose is to make revolution irresistible (toni cade bambara)
all that i touch, i change. all that i change, changes me. the only lasting truth is change. (octavia butler)
i have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. and i have to do it all the time. (angela davis)
nobody’s free until everybody’s free. (fannie lou hamer)
until the killing of black men, black mothers sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest. (ella baker)
i am no longer accepting the things i cannot change. i am changing the things i cannot accept. (angela davis)
when i dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether i am afraid. (audre lorde)
i am a light to this world that is unmatched. (toni-michelle)
black lives matter. (alicia garza) black trans lives matter. black disabled lives matter. black queer lives matter. black children’s lives matter. all black life matters.
yes, i mean literally abolish the police. (mariame kaba)
when i say abolish the police, i also mean the cop in my head and in my heart. (tourmaline)
we make abolition possible. (charlene carruthers)
if i hear the dogs, keep going. if i see the torches in the woods, keep going. if there’s shouting after me, keep going. don’t ever stop. keep going. if i want a taste of freedom, keep going. (harriet tubman)
the mandate for black people in this time is to avenge the suffering of our ancestors, to earn the respect of future generations, and be willing to be transformed in the service of the work (mary hooks)
my people are free (harriet tubman)

let that flow through you. and feel yourself in your black dignity – that line from the center of the earth to the stars with your name on it. feel yourself in black connection, the great circle of us holding each other. feel our allies at our backs. feel our ancestors at our backs, feel us on black time (prentis hemphill). you are on time. on purpose.

what you pay attention to grows. grow this revolution. black love.

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