This poem was written for the 4th Annual Womxn of Color Summit at the University of San Diego.
We are not a problem to be solved. We are, and have always been the answer. We are both sun and moon. We are the Spirit Dancer. All life flows through us whether through womb, if we choose or through the words that we use. It is within our complexities and the righteous indignation that sits at the core of our connections that allows us to be All the Things. For we are the teacher, the test and the lesson. We are the music, the instruments and the jam session. We are the stand-in and the stand alone. We are the letters, the Word and the poem. We are the answer to the problems that others create especially when those problems were designed to determine our fate. We are the timekeeper and the time stamp. We are whatever we want to be. We are the x that goes beyond ‘ships we are the force that launches ships to sail and provide refuge to the refugee. We are the x. We are the x between Delores Huerta and the New York Rep. A.O.C. We are the x between Marsha P. Johnson Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. We are the x between Cierra Fields and Madonna Thunder Hawk. Maria Teresa Ruiz. Hayganush Mark. The Quintreman Sisters and the Williams Sisters. Dame Katerina Te Heikôkô Mataira and Haunani-Kay Trask. Malala Yousafzai and Henrietta Lacks. We are the x between Yuri Kochiyama and Junko Tabei. Zora Neale Hurston and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. We are the x between Cecilia Chung and Al-Jen Poo. Velma R. Veloria and Fe Del Mundo. We are the x between Fannie Lou Hamer and Tamika Mallory. Anacaona and Silvia Lazarte. Melavika Kanaan and Kalpana Chawla. King Hatshepsut and Miriam Makeba. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Kenya’s Sitawa Wafula Who spoke these words: “Whatever you do, do not let what happened silence you.” It is the Intersection that is the solution. We are fully known. Our existence is not only the solution It is the only way home. We are what was and what is next. We are the vertex. Womxn of Color are the apex. We are twilight, that which intersects the night and the day. We are the mountaintop that reminded Martin Luther King Jr. of the justice pathway. We are the pinnacle, absolutely nothing can hold us down. We are the zenith and the apogee. We are Womxn at the Intersections of what is what was and what shall always be.
One response to “POEM: The Solution of X”
[…] my keynote address at a Womxn of Color Summit, I shared 7-Questions for the community to consider as they think about solidarity and liberation. […]
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