Journal

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MLK was killed, Beware the Day

6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. lies struggling for life on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee after being shot in the face with a sniper rifle. Photo by Louw, a young South African photographer and filmmaker Joseph Louw, who was working on a documentary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, and was staying 3 doors down from King. He rushed outside to help when he heard the shot, and there was nothing he could do, he began taking pictures.

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”

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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”

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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.

We gather, slowly, a combination of family and Baltimore Ceasefire members to remember Barry Lee.
We gather, slowly, a combination of family and Baltimore Ceasefire members to remember Barry Lee.
More family arrive for the vigil, spelling out Barry Lee’s name in candles.
More family arrive for the vigil, spelling out Barry Lee’s name in candles.

Continue reading “A Vigil for Barry Lee”

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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”