This poem is an offering created by our Community Catalyst Lu Aya. Our team gathered a few weeks ago, and we began reflecting on the conversations we've been having with organizations... about their commitments and passion to see change in their institutions, but also their hesitancy and uncertainty about how, if, and when to get started. We're committed to supporting organizations as they juggle and assess the very real needs, barriers, and challenges that organizations face in this time. And we also reflected on the shift of urgency in the years following the murder of George Floyd. We had a heartfelt discussion as a team, and from it, Lu surfaced a poetic offering that touched on so many of the nuances that we've heard from organizations, but that we've also been feeling in our hearts. While this is a reflection, it is also a call to action. Lu has generously agreed to allow us to share this poem with you — our online audiences and community — to support your own reflections about where you are at in your own change journey... to ask yourselves where have you may have fallen short in your promises to become more just and equitable since 2020. What does it look like to hold ourselves to a higher standard of accountability, and to take the necessary steps forward we've been delaying for far too long?
Take a moment to read and reflect on Lu's poem. Share it on social, with your colleagues, friends, and family. Have discussions. Tag us and let us know what thoughts and feelings come up for you. And remember that there's a whole community of change makers having these conversations, shifting, and changing every day.
Generations of Children Asking
Listen to the poem by clicking the play button above, and/or read Lu's words below.
Love
Is in prison
A whole system built on her wisdom being silenced
They said let's get back to work, get back normal
We heard get back to hurt because normal is violence
Blood of the babies seeping into the concrete
And white people mad a window got broke in a riot
It is the morning. And it is quiet. In Ferguson,
Mike Brown’s mama drinking her coffee
Its is evening. and it is quiet. in Minneapolis,
George Floyd’s spirit eyes see the concrete scribed with a million names…
How could we not see the murder taking place in a million ways…
When it is morning in our workplace and everyone ever enslaved on these lands
Are watching us sit down to plan the programs we will put our life force into
Do we ever pause to acknowledge- we have been to
Hell
and still carry scars from the flames, we learned to rebel,
We say their beautiful names,
Sandra Bland… is your boardroom - wondering if you are ashamed
Cuz we need powerful movements to stop racist murders, cages and contusions
And we can’t give an hour a week for something called “diversity, equity, and inclusion”!
Do we not see the danger to our children to be born into this delusion
Living life just to fight White ghosts filling up these rooms with trauma and confusion
I don’t know what conversation you in -
But when you arrive to work, the truth sits next to your desk awaiting your response:
You either showing up to heal the hurt.. or you're not,
But no matter what the fire is consuming, you can’t tell us its not hot,
We got Love In prison and only when we stop and listen
To the current of the mainstream sweeping people under can we begin to learn to swim
So when we say DEI, we need you to hear generations of children asking can I live?
When we do DEI, we mean our spirit is fly so just let us give
Our magic of creation space to be painting all of our liberation
So we can spread our wings and sing in every single room and stay making
The goodness that our babies need
Now… If you don’t have time, then admit you with the boys being proud of ignorance on loud
But if you’re actually down - if you really ready to be about what we about
Come on into this circle and lay your weapons down
We’ve come here to be Real
Because that is our only hope
To ever
Truly
Heal.
Lu Aya
OF/BY/FOR ALL Community Catalyst
Co-Founder and Cultural Worker of The Peace Poets
Call to Action
Every single person, including you, who takes action for equity in their workplace is needed. Thank you. There are so many of you. And it’s transforming how it feels to go to work and how it feels to be alive in many many places. AND. We need so many more. We need organizations to have the courage to stare into the horrific histories and realities of violence and challenge continued racial discrimination and brutality in all forms. Do you agree? Of course you do. Then why aren’t more people showing up to take action for more equity? The potency of a mainstream culture that justifies ongoing inequity cannot be underestimated. You still cannot be neutral on a moving train and the train is still roaring ahead toward inequity. So we're either jumping off and walking in the other direction or not. But it takes time and sacrifice, enduring frustration and finding inspiration to stay faithful to the good work of creating a more just workplace. This poem here above was written in the spirit of staying connected to the urgency of this work. It’s simply a heartfelt plea to be honest with where we are and what we face, so that we might dare to embark on the journey towards justice and healing. I actually know you here the calling. Sometimes like a ringtone you can’t avoid. Sometimes like a choir of clarity within your chest. You hear the calling towards justice and equity. I hope that wherever you are, you might turn towards this calling and let it lead you down the path that we are called to walk together.
Join Us.
