#black spirits

[svenson777]

Black spirits in Mongolian art

Mongol Zurag

[womanistgrrrl]

“i move on feeling i move in time and space. i move determined by feeling time and space.

'how could you?' they ask but the men who killed Black children in birmingham aren't on the questioning list. and the men who who killed [breonna] aren't on the questioning list.

and the list of names unlisted for questioning could and probably would include most of our 'finest leaders' who are wanted in my estimation for at least serious questioning so we made a list and listed it.

‘but you had everything’ my mother told me the world would one day speak my name then she recently suggested angela yvonne why don't you take up sports like your brother and i said 'i don't run as well as he' but they told me over and over again 'you can have them all at your feet' though i knew they were at my feet when i was born and the heavens opened up sending the same streak of lightning through my mother as through new york when i was arrested and i saw my sisters and siblings and i heard them tell the young racists 'you can't march with us.'

and i looked at the woman whose face was kissed by night as she said "angela you shall be free."

i thought of betty shabazz. it will never be over for some of us and our children and our grandchildren. betty can no more forget that staccato than i the pain in jonathan's face or the love in george's letters.

i remember water and sky and wanting someone to be mine i being the youngest daughter of africa and the sun was rejected and all the while them saying 'isn't she beautiful?' and she being i thinking 'aren't you sick.'

i remember wanting to give myself but nothing being big enough to take me and searching for the just way to live and seeing the answer understanding the just way to die though death is distasteful.

and don't you understand? i value my life so surely all others must value theirs and that's the weakness the weak use against us.

they so casually make decisions like who's going to live and who's going to starve to death and who will be happy or not and they never know what their life means since theirs lacks meaning and they—those guards and policemen—ever have to try to understand what Black life could mean while they casually steal the only possession worth possessing.

and the whites came with their little erections and i learned to see but not show feeling and i learned to talk while not screaming though i would scream if anyone understands that language.

Black people say i went communist and i only and always thought i went with Black people.

i mean i started with a clear head cause i felt i should and feeling is much more than mere emotion though that is not to be sacrificed and through it all i was looking for this woman angela yvonne.

and i wanted to be harriet tubman who was the first WANTED Black woman and i wanted to bring myself and us out of the fear and into the Dark but this i have learned of love— it is harder to be loved than to love and the responsibilities of letting yourself be loved are too great and perhaps i shall never love again cause i would rather need than allow and what i'm saying is i had five hours of freedom when i recognized my lovers had decided and i was free in my mind to say—whatever you do [do you] and do what you have done.

we walked that october afternoon among the lights and smells of autumn people and i tried so to hold on and as i turned 51st street and eighth and saw i knew there was nothing more to say so i thought and i entered the elevator touching the insides as a woman i love is touched.

i looked into the carpet as we were expelled and entered the key which would both open and close me and i thought to them all to myself just make it easy on yourself

october 1970"

— Nikki Giovanni, Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis, in "Black Spirits: A Festival of Black Poets" edited by W. King

[keepingitneutral]

Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi (22 September 1952 – 23 January 2019)

Olivier was a Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist, human rights activist and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Southern Africa Region

“Wasakara”

[secrua]

official ahib art