
For two years, I have decided to try and put all I can into 28 Days Of Blackness. I try to highlight the things you know, people you should know, and the dope things you may have forgotten about! I try to remind you, my lovely melaninated audience that your Blackness is always a gift, never a curse, never a monolith!
I want you to be proud of who you are–and where you come from. I want you to remember how amazing it is to be considered one of the Young, Gifted and Black. I want you to remember you are not alone, never have been, nor will be. This thing, this experience we can only vaguely quantify as Blackness is always evolving. It is part of being connected to the fabric of the whole universe (in your spare time, google the ‘Eve gene’). Alice Walker said it like this:
Try to think bigger than you ever have
or had courage enough to do:
that blackness is not where whiteness
wanders off to die: but that it is like the dark matter
between stars and galaxies in
the Universe
that ultimately
holds it all
together.
This place, this space, is just that–one more source that you can latch on to in order to hold it all together. Some days are harder than most, whereas there are other days where you may not even dream of needing that extra strength! Yet, it is there. We are here, and so shall you be.
The end of February is always a little sad for me, and always has been. I feel as if I have been cheated out of time with an elder whom tells me my ride is outside. I feel like I always need more time, more stories–more strength as food for the journey. I always feel like I have something left out, or could have put more into—like a cake recipe I didn’t quite remember. Then I have to remind myself that Black history is daily!
It’s made daily! Maintained daily! Discovered daily! And seen daily! A month which is a little more than quarter of the time Mercury zooms around the sun, is not the end (nor beginning) of Black History!
As this month ends, I want you to know how loved you are. I want you to know your melanin sparkles in the light, and you are deserving of all good things–and you hold all good things in your heart go give to the world. Don’t you dare leave the world without giving it what you hold!
You are Black History– on the daily.
Go and be lit.