The Name of this Song

 

“This is a show tune but the show hasn’t been written for it, yet.”

— Nina Simone, Mississippi Goddam

If you are any one or any thing like me, you will have walked alongside me in solidarity in any corner of the world this past Saturday, January 21st, 2017. Washington D.C., New York, Portland, San Francisco, Paris, Amsterdam, Kraków, O’ahu, and so many more cities, states, and active citizens organizing in collective protest for full equality. I was one among you in Los Angeles, a single green visor among thousands of proud, pink pussies. It was a quite a sight, one that I would have never missed for the life of me. Years I wrote & spoke openly about a Women’s Movement, a Feminist Revolution that would reshape the foundation of this nation. I believe it still even with signs of patriarchal apocalypse, political misrepresentation, and global climate change. Truthfully I am unafraid of the Trump administration, the serious threats he incites, and the catastrophic damage he promises to unleash upon Women’s rights & constitutional protections as Citizens. Yet it is the fear of losing so very much that I love & hold close to my heart that keeps me from celebrating in jubilation & happiness. Perhaps everyone who loves deeply works to hide their desperation, to hold onto everything they think they know, resisting all that which they do not. But just because I am not afraid does not mean that I do not feel or sense the anger, frustration, and anxiety that his election has filtered throughout the global community. I will not stand for hateful rhetoric, but I will continue to stand for the rights of marginalized & disenfranchised populations in the quest for full liberation.

Who knows? What I know is this: I love deeply, and care beyond measure of that which I can possibly do in the course of my time, perhaps my life. Women long to be bold in our choices, never doubting the course of our direction, knowing instinctually that this is the path that must be charted. The knowledge we have cultivated & collected together through & over time must now be shared & sewn into the soil that allowed our movement to take root. It is time to pass our stories down, so that those who have been Woke in Truth may walk in light, and illuminate within cover of darkness.

Let me tell you what I’ve learned so that you may then take one woman’s account, however small, into consideration. There is a shared experience of violence & collective solidarity taking place in this community, this nation, over the course of history & throughout the veins of the interconnected world wide web. One recurring theme that stands out from the impassioned addresses of Women is the critical understanding that when even one among us is oppressed, by nature of sex, race, gender, class, religion & disability, then we are likewise all oppressed. Our liberation is dependent on the freedom of all, unreserved for the few only. This is absolutely true.

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is anyone of you.”

— Audre Lorde,  The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism

From the moment we are born into modern contemporary society, we are socialized into stereotypes through projections & past illusions. Images of the past are superimposed as false prophecy to control through inherent biological destinies. There is a system that seeks to divide among difference, neutralize through distance, and erase through invisibility. In order to dismantle oppressive structures of white supremacist capitalist patriarchies, we must understand it, and love those who have been made victim to its prejudices. People are begging to be healed and to be made whole. There is suffering, and there is traumatic injury residing in the body, the mind, and the spirit.

What are we to do? Go to the People. Be among them. Find yourself among a community to commit yourself to and belong where you are loved. Women for too long have felt, and have been neglected, abused, ignored, exploited, and subject to discrimination on the basis of their being Female. As though it were something to be ashamed of, many have been intimidated & forced into hiding their Femininity for fear of being molested and groped because some wily tiny hands felt entitled to “touch the merchandise” or “squeeze the produce”. You know, to ensure the fruit is ripe, the soil fertile. Again, the presence of signs & art everywhere saying Yes, the Yoni is Sacred, the Womb Holy, Respect the Uteri. The Divine Feminine is Present.

Occupying space with you in Los Angeles, all told 750,000 human beings, Women, feminists, Children, male accomplices, and allies in the movement, is the femme’ifestation of the collective dream. It goes beyond the manifest destinies of the american dream, beyond abolitionist visions, suffragette passions, and civil rights promises. What we have created together over time is a living miracle that challenges the dictates of authoritarian governance, standing in opposition to state violence. We are a grown People, a collective of Grown Women. We have nurtured one another through resistance, patience, grace, compassion, and understanding. We need no one to save us from ourselves. We have come to liberate ourselves so that we may in turn liberate one another through the healing power of Beloved Community.

“They tried to bury Us. They did not know We were Seeds.” — Mexican Proverb

And what will that look like? It will look just as you choose to see it. If you choose to fight against change, then it will likewise fight against you. If we let it be, allow it to normalize & metastasize, we stand to loose a great deal more as the cancer spreads, poisoning the the blood. Make no mistake there are predatory forces out there, beyond that door. Do not let them fool you into the mistake of not going out into the light for fear of retribution & discrimination. You are a valued part of the Womanist led Intersectional Feminist movement. Find us so that we may find you as well. We know that there has been a great deal of hiding in recession & secrecy. That is our right to Privacy, and yes we must organize to protect the integrity of our lives & personal character. For any one who has endured cultures of silence, please find yourself at a place where you can speak, share your story, and be heard. Write it down on paper, and make us real. We are here. We are waiting. And we are organizing. We are moving. We are changing.

Sometimes the things I see, hear & witness are so extraordinarily distressing to the point of depression & immobility. Wracked with pain & suffering in my bones, sinews, and muscles, I question the purpose of the human experience. Left to rot in a body that cannot let go of trauma & grief, I share in the anguish of injustice, an open bleeding wound that found its way to a river. When the blood reached the cool clean running waters of time, the red tide began to spread into distilled pools of microcosmic universes. Congealed blood held tight to the soils of the bank, hardening into a crust of mother’s magic magma, pulsing beneath the moss of new growth. One in the same, each flow made different paths among the fauna, never disconnected from their source of origin.

You see, there is power in our blood. The power is not shared among all, but those who were tasked to carry the weight of the world. If you do not bleed, share in the weight, do not hinder us any more by applying taxes, fees, and restrictions to those very things that enable you to live life. If they’re looking to make a profit off some of us, think about how much your own price might be. 13 pieces of silver. 300 lives for one man’s freedom. How much does democracy cost when not some, but most of us are excluded from the conversation? As Alice Walker is quoted as remarking in dialogue, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Make no mistake, Women are ever more conscious of their innate creative, intellectual, emotional, maternal, sexual, reproductive, economic, healing, and spiritual power. We are beginning to collectively transcend to another level of human consciousness, and if you didn’t know it yesterday, we are Feminists.

I am a secretary. I take notes. I am a student, teacher, Poet & Yogi. I am a Woman. I have value. I have talents. I have gifts. I am a Writer, and I want to share. But be warned, we must all likewise be vigilant, and take care to not take advantage where gains are to be made. Nurture & Nature must be one in the Silence of Contemplation. Only then, in conscious meditation, can you visualize the constructions of the paths you have prepared yourself to traverse. Draw the map you have charted in your mind, so you may walk it in Peace. March, not to the calls of war, but the cries to compassion, the beats of the streets, and the drums of Revolution. I heard them then and there, on Broadway & 5th. Trumpets, horns, song & dance – the People are Alive. They still call to me & I hear their song ringing in the circulations of my mind. Walk with us. Sing with us. Create something completely new reflective of All of US.

Signed,

The Rainbow Children