James Baldwin is one of my favorites. He was a storyteller who got to the heart of a matter, and shared it all with you. Long before I was born he was thinking of how his work, intentions, and actions would affect my generation. He is one of the reasons I love words and people who’s voices sound like melted chocolate. In one of the last things Baldwin wrote he spoke about his duty as a writer to be a witness . As I think about his role as a witness, I think about the necessary trust given to him by those he witnessed. They trusted he would validate and affirm their stories. He, in turn, protected them from the evil fate of the single story. Folks he witnessed for had him to stand on when the world tried to erased them and their experiences.
We all deserve a Baldwin in our lives. We are entitled to having someone bare witness for us, to love us. The way we make room for them is to master vulnerability, and emotionalism. Although unfair sometimes we have to keep our emotions close to the vest in order for our witness to sit closest to the “stage”. Our Baldwin’s have to be able to hear a clear and vulnerable story. That validation feeds us, strengthens our bones, and illuminates what sometimes is lost within us.
Affirmation
January 16th 2021
“ I deserve a witness and I’ll be a witness. I will protect myself and those within my reach from being a victim of the single story.”