Passing the crown series – PART 1

AN INTRODUCTION

In 2014 the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) launched the #SayHerName campaign to amplify and politicize the names and stories of Black women, girls, and femmes lost to state violence. The campaign continues to be an essential part of a new global movement

I was introduced to #sayhername campaign by Kimberly Crenshaw podcast Intersectionality Matters- Under the Blacklight: Telling Stories of State Violence & Public Silence in 2020.

For some reason, it took the horrific and brutal murder of George Floyd for people around the world to wake up. For me to wake up. But why now and why this man?

Why am I unwilling to stand for the BLACK women who died. We must be equally outraged when state violence. Since the beginning of our time on North America / Turtle island.

Let’s not forget that Black women are just as likely to be die. 

This text is titled Passing the crown because I want to use my platform to uplift the voices that have been crushed under the weight of oppression and violence.

 

 

A POEM

Who was the first one to say
I can’t breathe?
Does it matter?

Yes.
When a black woman is killed
The world is silent

If we start talking about Black Women
The world will be turned upside down
Why are we not talking about
India Kager, killed by Virginia Beach police in 2015

What about Sandra Bland, killed in custody in Waller County TX in 2015
There is even a 2018 HBO documentary about her life
The 4th of the pack
The family of note-takers is still fighting for

What about Korryn Gaines, killed by Baltimore Police in 2016
What about Michelle Cusseaux, killed by Phoenix Police in 2014
What about Kayla Moore, killed by Berkeley Police in 2013
What about Shelly Frey, killed by Houston police in 2012

Or Marie-Joseph Angelique
An enslaved woman in Montreal
On June 21 1734 was on set on fire THEN hanged THEN paraded in the streets by the city of Montreal
One woman burnt down old Montreal

This is not an exercise in victimization.
This is an exercise in resistance.
We must burn down the system

I need to harness my voice
My energy
Towards
Black women who have been forgotten

We are up against the world
Who else will say her name if not us?

What can I contribute to the cause
What do I want to fight for?

I want to uplift
The BLACK women who
Have fallen

I do not want to victimize
My sisters
BLACK women like Claudette Colvin
The real rosa parks
The dark-skinned
Teenage mother
Who had the guts to stand up to injustices

BLACK women who
Carry the past with them
The rage
Against the system of reality
That sets in motion

BLACK women like Kimberly Crenshaw
Who lights the way
For intersections of women
To walk the pah

I see you walking
Energy positively radiant
Mesmerizing

We are up against the world
Who else will say her name if not us?

I want you to ask yourself
how are you going to say her name?

 

END OF PART 1 – SOME THOUGHTS

I want to bring attention to Korryn Gaines Poem The Vampire Theory. First highlighted by The story of Say Her Name, this is a play written by Kimberlé Crenshaw, G’Ra Asim, and Julia Sharpe-Levine in 2019 and it is based on five years of interviews with this group of women, now called the #SayHerName Mothers Network. The plot entangles the stories of six women victims of police violence and their mothers to weave a tapestry of intergenerational loss, grief, resistance, and rebirth.

These mothers gave us permission to uplift their daughters.

 

 

The Vampire Theory by Korryn Gaines

our blood reeks of
the loyalty they can smell it in the air
we’re so used to our own scent we cannot
fathom what we bear they know of our
greatness I’m just trying to taste it
while others are trying to waste it and
the white man is trying to trace it but
even in trying to find what is truly
beyond divine, they could never go back
far enough we’re way beyond that time
therefore in the meantime, they cut the
queens and kings with crime used to hang
this up with strings to trees and other
things now they took guns with beings
and wrist rings same old ankle chains
still beating less the same ain’t
nothing changed except now they’re
trying to survive can’t find any use for
us alive not knowing we can’t die so
while they’re chasing blood snatching
bodies eating babies and raping our minds go ahead and sex with all kind
they can only become us with there be
thrust as for us they only raised our
army and I trust that we are righteous