Community is crafted. I thank our creatives and culture bearers
who loved us out loud and in ceremony
channeling the combustion of our grief, suffering, and trauma this past year, across generations, and still
who said his name, Brother George Perry Floyd, Jr.
who painted all the names on the pavement where his life was crushed out
remembering and calling on our ancestors
who made murals, penned plays and spat poems, fired sculpture, self-published and sang
who danced and drummed, photographed and filmed
stenciling our stories of struggle and survival
who sewed solidarity and carried the lists, the text chains, the phone trees, the family trees
who quilted kin and coalitions
inviting others to participate, to visit, to contribute, and to stay
who convened folks online and masked up in person
who taught us safety during COVID, protest, and uncertain conditions,
supporting our collective well-being
who brought us back to our bodies
who led yoga, movement, and meditation in the parks, on screens, and in the streets
reminding us of the necessity of our breath and our joy
who held space at 38th and Chicago,
who engaged elders and young folks, and each other to buy land, rent buildings, build out studios, and build up organizations
evolving new connections and economies with urgency and grace
who worked within institutions
who adapted programs to new platforms and spurred the disruption of sluggish and segregationist systems
testing the purpose and plasticity of policies
who reported out from the corner, the courtroom, and the chatroom
who offered sleepless analysis, context, and critique
sharpening and informing our participation
who called for accountability and access
who advocated for basic income, a living wage, and for more just distributions of resources and power
centering oppressed and impacted peoples and orienting toward liberation
who walked the rivers and camped in resistance
who live and have lived here all the while
declaring the sacredness of land and water
who knew we were the ones and did not wait,
who assert our humanity and our inevitable connections with each other and this Earth
holding a reverence for life as replenishing as rain.
This poem is part of a series of first-person reflections our colleagues are sharing about George Floyd and the racial justice movement.
