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we wear red every day
6
April 15th, 2009violence, writing/poetry
if the humble poems i offer up in your name could bring you back to us
i’d never put my pen down
littering the city with haikus, limericks and love poems
everyone would know your nameeveryone would know your name
there would no need for crying over candle flames
or sitting tight-lipped trying to be brave
we’d all be kindred, we’d all be communitycommunity, what a funny word
we live in a place where churches sit planted on every corner
how about we talk agape love
and mean it?let’s mean it, let’s not get bogged down in bullshit conversations of whether you “deserved it”
don’t you know no one deserves violence?
how come it’s so hard to recognize humanity?humanity, what a concept
gender non-conforming people of color hunted down so often
angie zapata, duanna johnson, teish cannon are only a few this year
sheer numbers make it impossible for me to have poems for everyonebut everyone deserves respect, life, and their name spoken so i try
slain 5 miles from my house, i’m sorry i can only know you through an obituary
praying peace for your loved ones
justice for you
and quick end to this senseless violencetoday i received an email expressing condolences for Jimmy McCollough, a gender non-conforming person who lived in my town and was slain yesterday, in what is looking like a hate crime. you can find out more here and here. didn’t know Jimmy (who identified as Imaje Devera on stage) and am not able to be out in my local community, but this hits so hard.
3 responses to “we wear red every day” 
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who words can’t bring back
they can remember
years after our tallest candles
burn to brass -
THANK YOU. I missed this awful tragedy completely, and your words are a perfect commemoration of the weight such a loss carries with it. It’s been hard for me to read the news recently, and so I’ve been missing a lot of similar attacks against folks of color around the world. Thanks for your poem and your thoughtfulness, this is a beautiful way to remember Jimmu/Imaje.
3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks
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[...] As I said on twitter yesterday, I am feeling sorta empty and confused and happy and weirded out about this whole thing. I can’t feel happy that yet another Latino human being is being thrown in jail forever–but as somebody else said THANK GOD that for just fucking ONCE the necessity of the life of a beautiful woman is affirmed. But at the same time–are any of these verdicts going to make life for trans people safer? The answer is no–more tragic news from Stacey shows this. [...]
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[...] As I said on twitter yesterday, I am feeling sorta empty and confused and happy and weirded out about this whole thing. I can’t feel happy that yet another Latino human being is being thrown in jail forever–but as somebody else said THANK GOD that for just fucking ONCE the necessity of the life of a beautiful woman is affirmed. But at the same time–are any of these verdicts going to make life for trans people safer? The answer is no–more tragic news from Stacey shows this. [...]
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[...] here. There are spaces online and activists online writing about these topics. Find us, reach out, write, cry, talk, dance, meditate, create, do whatever you need to do, but know you are not [...]
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cripchick
Cripchick is a queer disabled corean-american living and loving in North Carolina. Cripchick is a 22 year old youth organizer who has been working in the youth arm of the Disability Rights Movement since high school. She is most interested in using poetry, community organizing and media as a way to cut through isolation that marginalized people often face. Cripchick is a radical woman of color feminist and believes in the power of people coming together.
you can say hi by clicking on the post titled and leaving a comment, emailing her at consciouslycrip[at]gmail
[dot]com, or on twitter.
A Few Projects Cripchick Is Involved With
Cripchick is facilitating a satellite campus in her local community for School of Our Lorde. School of Our Lorde is an effort to bring people together to study the poetics, pedagogy, politics and publishing of feminist warrior poet Audre Lorde. You can join an existing campus, participate by distance learning or start your own campus! To find out more, visit: http://summerofourlorde.wordpress.com/
Disability Justice Track at the Allied Media Conference
The Allied Media Conference is an annual gathering where artists, media makers and activists come together to talk media strategies for community building. Cripchick is working with other disabled people to create the first ever Disability Justice track--- a space where we people will dissect a disability justice analysis and have time to talk about the way disability shapes our work as cultural activists, media makers and activists. You can find out more at http://alliedmediaconference.org
Disabled Young People's Collective's first ever Activism, Community, Empowerment Summit
Cripchick is an active member with the Disabled Young People's Collective, a crew of disabled youth working to get free in NC. DYP is organizing a 6 day event in August for disabled youth between the ages 16-24 to come together and learn about disability justice, organizing, and community building. To get an application or find out more, visit http://thedypcollective.org
ekswitaj April 16th, 2009 at 20:26