as we collect our stories and reclaim our names
we become aware of the possibility
that, in fact, we always live with our ancestors
as we collect our stories and reclaim our names
we start to contrive
the raw material
to obtain our fibers
as we collect our stories and reclaim our names
we start to cultivate the insights of how those fibers can be woven into strands
that when interlocked with other fibers
create a collective blanket, untold histories

No, not a patchwork-quilt, not a melting ***, not a salad bowl
not a room full of flags with countries we cant place on a map
and full of people WE can’t help but fetishize
no, No, NO
this is an interwoven stitch
this is a tattered rag
that has been used to wipe **** off of colonizer’s *******
that has been used to wipe the dripping *** off of Thomas Jefferson’s ****
as he finishes up with his Saartjie Baartman,
that has been used to hide the faces of the KKK as they drag uppity black boys down the street
and LYNCH them in carnival and spectacle
that has been soaked in Black and Brown blood on the streets of
Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, North Carolina, Milwaukee, and every other city and district in the US of KKK

This is not a handholding session with me
I am the oppressor and I must fear my own wrath
my fiber is white, my strand is white
and too many strands are white
and too many Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow strands have been bleached
or told “wait your turn to be included in the blanket"
or "be thankful we even include you in the stitching
give us a TOKEN of gratitude”
I take YOUR strands and use them to cloth MY babies while yours lie naked

The time is now
to take the clorox and gulp it down as it eviscerates our throats and consumes our souls
We don’t need anymore whitewashed histories
we dont need anymore white sheets
we don’t need to go to BED, BATH, and BEYOND
I cannot come to you with a bail full of cotton and ask you to join me in a knitting session
#IMNOTRACISTBUT…

this is not a time for diversity and multiculturalism
or the co-option of “social justice”

this is a time for Solidarity

this is a time for Liberation

this is a time for Abolition

this is a time for Insurrection

this is a time for Rebellion

this is a time for Revolution

I cannot be the leader
but I can contribute
I cannot be the voice
but I can sure has hell listen

and this is how we will transform the blanket
not with hollow words and moderate reforms
but with direct action and liberatory collaboration
by yelling the phrase “white supremacy is as American as apple pie” at the top of our lungs

not with corporate funding and 5,000 dollar a plate galas
but by dismantling the looms that have woven the threads of
Hate, ****, Land theft, and Genocide
that have woven the strands of
reservations, redlining, white flight, and gentrification
and by co-creating ones that speak to our destroyed histories
that refuse to use the bleach
even when the blanket gets *****

I hear it was the whistling towards a white woman,
that got you killed, face beaten in like a castrated mummy.

They stopped you because they did not want to take the blame.
Oh! how they killed you because they hated themselves,
used a lie to send you to your grave in the most horrible way.

Blood stains the Coliseum doors.
Now history repeats, everyone getting killed like Till.
Dead Black bodies dropping down on the streets.

Shout all of their names 3 times! They were innocent Black people, but 5-0 thought otherwise.

Police took away precious black lives of men, women, and children.
I know I’m guilty of it too, but not like them.

Stop the killing! Stop the racism! Freeze!
Black people are no longer enslaved,
We no longer wear those chains just to be painted gold.

Now once upon a time not too long ago,
A ***** like myself had to strong arm a ***.
Hold your golden-black crown high

Black woman

Black woman

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Do you see the strength
and heart of the warrior Afrekete?

Is your head held up high,
for a crown to rest?
And be dubbed black queen,
mother of life, educator of black intelligence

Do you see your dark skin as it dances
and befriends the night,
kisses the sun and
absorbs black power day in and day out?

Do you see those wide hips, big bust,
big **** and big lips?

Never will you say that those precious gifts
from descendant Saartjie Baartman are a curse.

Black woman

Black woman

what do you see when you look at you
Lookup!

Lookup I say.

See that melanin on fleek,
that no one would dare to compete with.

Black woman do you see us?
Ancestors who stand before you,
behind you and beside you.

Give birth to a Black nation
Do you see that within the mirror?
The blood and shadows of a warrior queen.

Black Lives Matter, I cried

Pull up your pants
They would say
And WE won’t shoot
Black men in 1920’s suits
Left dead or in jail
Black mothers cried, I cried
M.L.K has arisen and died