Catch the Fire

One of the best days of my life.

...started at 7am with a Maafa walk through New Orleans, wearing all white to honor the ancestors, then - you know how big this is personally - we interviewed the legendary civil rights activist, icon and poet laureate Sonia Sanchez.

So full and energized and really, really happy.

With the recent public murders of black men by police, i really thought I was out. Exhausted But, I'm not. No. Un-uh.

I'm feeling ready, strong, responsible, want to learn from our foremothers the art of sedition, and to be about that business of resistance to anything that does not bring life.

So if anyone has great ideas or plans or need help or want to get down, I'm so here for it. radical love and timeless abundance. Knowing all along... This photo with #SoniaSanchez is a reminder that we've got to carry on.

...that like Mamie till said, "we don't have a minute to hate, but have to pursue justice for the rest of our lives." We've got work to do.

Here is why I love Dr. Sanchez. My favorite of her poems, Catch the Fire:

(Sometimes I wonder:

What to say to you now

in the soft afternoon air as you

hold us all in a single death?)

I say—

Where is your fire?

I say—

Where is your fire?

You got to find it and pass it on.

You got to find it and pass it on

from you to me from me to her from her

to him from the son to the father from the

brother to the sister from the daughter to

the mother from the mother to the child.

Where is your fire? I say where is your fire?

Can’t you smell it coming out of our past?

The fire of living…not dying

The fire of loving…not killing

The fire of Blackness…not gangster shadows.

Where is our beautiful fire that gave light

to the world?

The fire of pyramids;

The fire that burned through the holes of

slaveships and made us breathe;

The fire that made guts into chitterlings;

The fire that took rhythms and made jazz;

The fire of sit-ins and marches that made

us jump boundaries and barriers;

The fire that took street talk sounds

and made righteous imhotep raps.

Where is your fire, the torch of life

full of Nzingha and Nat Turner and Garvey

and DuBois and Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin

and Malcolm and Mandela.

Sister/Sistah Brother/Brotha Come/Come

CATCH YOUR FIRE…DON’T KILL

HOLD YOUR FIRE…DON’T KILL

LEARN YOUR FIRE…DON’T KILL

BE THE FIRE…DON’T KILL

Catch the fire and burn with eyes

that see our souls:

WALKING.

SINGING.

BUILDING.

LAUGHING.

LEARNING.

LOVING.

TEACHING.

BEING.

Hey. Brother/Brotha. Sister/Sista.

Here is my hand.

Catch the fire…and live.

live.

livelivelive.

livelivelive.

live.

live.