“…[P]oetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action….
If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is a luxury, then we have given up the core-the fountain-of our power, our womanness; we have given up the future of our worlds.”
– Audre Lorde from the essay “Poetry is Not a Luxury”
Dear Community,
George Floyd. Tony McDade. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. With rage, despair, and grief, we say their names. We hold them in our hearts.
And we must continue to tear down white supremacy and anti-Black racism and the systems, behaviors, and beliefs built on these. We must reimagine and remake new systems rooted in liberation and love. We must live into the world we are trying to create now—there is no waiting. Black Lives Matter.
To our Black, trans, and indigenous friends and colleagues, we send energy of healing, rest, replenishment, and love. This is your / our work.
To our white and non-Black people of color friends and colleagues, we send urgency, courage, and love to act boldly and like never before. This is your / our work.
Songs like that of Keedron Bryant are a rally cry. Art like that of Nikkolas Smith helps us hold the pain and our hope for the future. We must remember our poetry in all its forms.
Towards love, dignity, and justice,
The Change Elemental Team
Banner Photo Credit: Fibonacci Blue | CC BY 2.0
