W 152nd Street / Sandra Grace

W 152nd Street

Sandra Grace

“my DNA not for imitation

… … …

your DNA an abomination”

– Kendrick Lamar

born in 1947 she would

sit outside on her broken-up stoop of the Harlem projects–

she lived in a constant war zone. the police sirens wailed

through all hours of the day, searching. searching for the

dark man in a hood, searching for the dark woman with tight braids

sandra would later bring a dark girl with tight curls into this world,

1966, alone and scared–the two secretly spent their nights atop an old

Chinese restaurant somewhere in Manhattan.

THIS. FIGHT. ISN’T. OVER.

THIS–FIGHT–WILL–NEVER–BE–OVER

1966, my mother flourished into this world. she would grow

into an amazing, charismatic,

loving, and broken young woman.

told she was never smart,

never good enough

never pretty enough

–or

she was told

she was smart for a little black girl

she was good enough for a little black girl

she was pretty for a little black girl

“for a little black girl”

“your hair is nice for a black girl”

“your lips are nice for a black girl”

“you speak so well for a black girl”

Nina Simone and James Brown blared from my mother’s record

player “SAY IT LOUD!

“I’m black and I’m proud”

There is nothing white people hated more than a proud black woman. “

If I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I believe they do have an actual advantage.”

– 2016 President Elect

FIGHTING UNTIL OUR SKIN TURNS WHITE AND OUR BONES ARE BEATEN

REMEMBERING HOW EXTRAORDINARY WE ARE AND HOW MIGHTY WE ARE

EXHALING THE BREATH THAT WE KEEP DEEP INSIDE OF OUR CHEST

EMANATING LOVE AND RADIATING LIGHT DEMANDING CHANGE NOW, WE WILL NOT WAIT ANOTHER 400 YEARS

ORGANIZING A REVOLUTION AND SHIFT IN POWER, THEY WILL NOT WIN

MAKING THEIR NAMES HEARD, THEY WON’T FADE INTO THE ABYSS

Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr, Chinedu Okobi, Antwon Rose Jr., Bettie “Betty Boo” Jones, Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones, Elijah McClain Sterling Lapree Higgins, Walter Lamar Scott, Phillip Gregory White, Meagan Hockaday, Natasha McKenna, Rumain Brisbon

The silence is deafening as my family hears another name placed on the ever-growing list. Hear the names, hear the cries, hear the wounds cutting deep, hear the screams, hear the–