Crisis – momentum

Everything could change

Everything could stay the same

It is about how we decide

Each one of us

Do we want to keep denying our humanness?

Do we want to be free?

Do we want love?

we decide

Everything could change

Everything could stay the same

As white passing, woman passing, sane passing person I walk through this world afraid and unbothered

Frozen and safe in its view, carrying its violence inside

Always ready to run, terrified to be found, mostly secure in my privilege though

What kind of safety keeps you alive and carries death

Always sitting heavy on your chest

What is that weight on the chest of

Black people

Black queer people

Black trans people

Black gender-nonconforming people

What is that weight on those who are perceived as crazy, disabled and poor

I center you

I center your humanness, my humanness, our dignity

Your words and brilliance and beauty are my focus

When I channel my white cis working-class mother

Let me talk to the manager without Karen

Fuck your system that harms and kills people

I take back what’s mine

I channel my Iranian father staying seated when the system asked him to stand for authority

I transform his conforming to white supremacy, believing the promise of liberalism and capitalism

I transform his profiting from sexism into standing up with me again

Not staying seated in the face of oppression

I channel my parents fighting their fights, coming together against all odds

I channel their oppression, I channel their resistance alliance and power

I honor their pain, see what is theirs, see what is mine

I transform pain into power

I channel the empty promise of privilege into resistance and transformation

If there is intergenerational trauma, there is intergenerational resilience and healing (Kazu Haga)

I thank you Angela, I thank you Marsha, far away

From my experience

Still in community in struggle and fight for

Liberation, truth and love

I summon my truest self

The one that shines, the one that makes mistakes and learns

The one that connects the dots, speaks up, gathers everything resistance

I summon you who

Feels the power rising, the truth growing, the love spreading

I summon ready through fear and anger, grief and hope

I summon ready, ready for change

Ready for the world coming from our hearts and souls, connecting

Bringing together

Our love in our hands, actions and words

I summon ready

I summon community and joy

I summon you through me

I invite you to summon me

Let’s summon us truth growing stronger

Let’s summon us truth being power