a love letter to Patrisse Khan-Cullors and all my black mothers and sisters at the forefront of the revolution

15/03/18 - 18/03/18

God's spoken promise opened the platform, 

an ode to black womxnhood.

this movement is a silent understanding that we have with one another.

when we gather in a room, we know the reasons

no words are necessary.

this movement is not a phase.

visibility is not a buzzword.

the revolution is as real as any of God's promises.

a womxn who is not my mother

held me yesterday like my mother would have.

she said i'm so sorry you had to go through that my baby
lulling me back into healing

and i have always known of the potency of a black mother's love

the kind that knits hearts back together

but
this kind of universality
this kind of love, from black mothers and sisters,
that transcends continents and generations
is what begins
revolutions.

this kind of love makes us the strongest

but it also means that our hearts are consistently being broken

as if it were not enough to break our spines.

but see us rising again from the hurt.

this type of love has no rival

the only love above it is

God's.

in case i haven't told you already,

black womxn, i love you. i love us.

our cause is not a phase.

yesterday,

another womxn who is not my mother, but could have been,

wiped away a tear.

i think weeping for all of her children.

tell me about the poems that make you cry.

and the songs that broke your heart.

and then tell me that the aching is not sourced from a lived experience

before you question the authenticity of our outrage.

black womxnhood is not a phase.

black womxnhood is our fate,

our destiny,

it is our home.

it is the place where we gather, under a mutual understanding of our lived experiences

with love.

a place of healing

and unlearning of the hardness that is unbecoming of this skin

a place of sisterhood

much needed after all the hatred thrown our way.

the revolution is not romantic.

do not think that this poem is easy to write.

do not think that being called radical 

or a terrorist

is easy to swallow

when there is nothing radical about justice

nothing terrorizing about respect for human 

life.

this black chalice only wants to experience joy,

uninterrupted.

with laid, or unlaid edges.

skin always oiled.

hair wrapped for a night of peaceful sleep

after the generations have been liberated

and our children are home safe.

but for now,

i will keep writing you love letters to remind you that you are worth it,

black womxn.

i want to write about us in them.

about you and about me

and the love stories that have allowed us to exist this long

especially since we've been told our whole lives that we do not matter,

even by those who matter to us the most.

our love is the reason they fear us.

the reason they want to exterminate us.

the very same reason they cannot ever succeed in eliminating us

our spirits are a special type of kinky

that very few know how to cater to,

resilient.

it grows thick and tough from the nurtured soil.

nurture your spirit and i will help you water it.

and soften it.

i will massage your scalp and braid your hair down into cornrows 

so that it weathers the storms coming this way

to show you that i love you, sister, 

mother.

to show you that you matter.

to show you that God told me so Herself

when She crafted us from Her love.

to show you Her glory shining through each one of us.

even when this world makes us feel so small.

because you are worth it, black womxn.

because your joy matters.

and your peace matters.

and our love matters.

and our lives matter!

so in case i haven't told you already,

black womxn, i love you. i love us.

our stress lines will be smoothed into creases of laughter

on these nights that we design just for ourselves.

and the cathartic tears in the corners of our tired eyes

will be confused for surrender by those who do not share this understanding.

and our tongues will hold onto the fruits of the spirit

that God has orchestrated through our poems

and our music

and our dance
food

our embraces

and through these love letters

that i hope will uplift another

as those who raise me continue to uplift me.

this movement is not a phase.

it has started a revolution in my heart,

and if this love is radical then let it be so

because love is the best thing we do.

so love indiscriminately, black womxn.

love recklessly.

love radically, and i promise you
it will change the world
i promise you,
that you are my world
i promise you,
that there is no world without you, so

i will love you back

with everything that i have

and everything that i am,

forever.

i need you to know it,
so that you remind yourself of it
on the days that you feel most broken,
when you feel you're not healing
when your sister's eyes are tearing
and your hearts are still fearing
that the world will keep
burying
your spirits
under expletives
that write you out of
history.
so tuck this in the diary you keep
and make it part of ourstory.
help me keep on writing it.

and we'll ask God to teach us
herstory
so that our daughters know of their foremothers,
mama Africa is a real person.

we are her fruits as much as we are our own mothers'
and
here she  stands
making statements in rooms
designed by her
for her
for peace
for health
for joy
for you
for me

for her daughters
for God's daughters.

because we have always

and will always

matter.

so we will love us for us
and i promise
that it will change our world
radically.

Yasmina Nuny