MLK was killed.
And people went into uproar.
They cried in anguish because they realized he was a Black man who didn’t deserve to die. Continue reading “MLK was killed, Beware the Day”
MLK was killed, Beware the Day
A Tale of Two Vigils
Timothy Caughman, a Black man, was slain in New York City by a white supremacist from Baltimore. Two communities gather to honour Caughman in very different ways.
I went out to take pictures.
The Baltimore Uprising: What I saw
a retrospective
2 years ago, Baltimore experienced a movement beginning that would change it forever. While I published these photos on Instagram and Twitter, I never compiled them into a full story. Continue reading “The Baltimore Uprising: What I saw”
Don’t Let Staying Woke Drive You Mad
Self-care is primary in the revolution.
Don’t let being woke make you go mad. I know, I know. Being woke is a problematic term. It implies that people can be asleep, and for Black and Brown people, I’m not sure that’s completely true. And yet, there still is a stark difference between before you were motivated to take action in social justice, and after. But what people don’t really talk about is how painful that awakening can be. Which is why self-care has been so important in this movement. Continue reading “Don’t Let Staying Woke Drive You Mad”
A Vigil for Barry Lee
On the tail end of the original Baltimore Ceasefire weekend, a man is killed in West Baltimore
During the reading of the names at the end of the Baltimore Ceasefire weekend, Barry Lee’s name was the last to be read. His mother requested we attend his vigil in West Baltimore.
We later discovered he had been out to Cease Fire events.
Waking Up During a Wave of White Supremacy
Don’t ask Black people for more.
This morning I woke up to videos of white supremacists marching with torches.
Last night I attended a vigil for someone who died in segregated Black Baltimore.
The white supremacists in Charlottesville are literally marching to keep places like Black Baltimore, and other economically starved areas of the country, the same. Continue reading “Waking Up During a Wave of White Supremacy”
The Confederate Roots of the Maryland Flag
How secessionists adopted the Crosslands banner and how Maryland tried to reconcile with them
When I moved to Maryland, I was blown away by seeing the flag everywhere. I’d never seen so much pride in a state flag before. Continue reading “The Confederate Roots of the Maryland Flag”
Never Forget
9/11
The government asks us to remember this day, to memorialize it with hashtags and news articles and statues and vigils and sermons and moments of silence, but it dictates what part of the truth we remember. We’re called to remember the police, the paramedics, and the firefighters that put their lives on the line. We give a moment of silence to the thousands lost in the towers that fell, the Pentagon that was hit, and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. We’re asked to remember the pain and suffering of those who died, to never forget the trauma our nation endured, and to take pride in the resilience we have as a nation against terror.
And those are good things to remember. But some of us remember some other things that happened on this day.
Soulnumb
When half-fixed pants
Is the romance
The olive branch
You don’t know whether
To smile or cry Continue reading “Soulnumb”
Star-Crossed
May 13, 2003
My first poetry submission.
I am not a professional poet, so; if my beat is off, my grammer is bad, and it’s too sing-songy… I’m very sorry.
Those aren’t exactly my goals when I write this. I write this because I have to. If I kept it inside, I would explode. People are cruel, and I don’t need any more reminder of this if that is what is going through your head. (I will probably respond with another poem anyway… 
)
If you ARE an english person (English isn’t exactly my first language) and would like to HELP me, do it by private messages. But don’t rip me up here.
Now; about the poem.
This was written at a very rough time in my life, I was in dismay as my first love completely abandoned me. I appeared to take it all in stride at first, so as to protect her feelings, but this poem showed how hurt I really was inside.
One heart cannot make it alone
Time and time it’s proven again
Feelings renewed when you’re gone
When you feel it should be the end
Even though I realized
The heartache was from you,
I just couldn’t let go
I just couldn’t turn back
I just couldn’t start anew,
Because you broken off a piece of my heart,
And made it a part of yours
Instead of both of us sharing one heart,
You seem to end up with more.
When somebody falls in love
Their hearts must be shared
But if one doesn’t get enough,
That means the other doesn’t care
[interlude]
For me it seems
That you ripped at the seams
And tore at the roots
what might have been
In my case you lied
In this you hurt me
Your words cut like a knife
and tears bled from me
I gave you a heart
Already cracked and scarred
And although you didn’t know it,
You drew tears from eyes once starred
Do you know what’s it’s like
To cry because your heart aches
Do you know the feeling of pain
Every time my heart breaks
I looked at my friends
They only added the pain
Every one of them was happy
They only brought it up again
They were all together,
And had been more than I could count
They said “How is it a guy like you
Could be for so long love without?”
[endlude]
You once called me star-crossed
Now I call myself soul lost
Because you feel the price of love
Is too high a cost.