Sharing With the Hope of Amplifying
At The Rumpus, Marisa Siegel shares what she's been reading in this week of chaos and confusion and loss of more black bodies, "the articles that have left [her] hollowed and in tears and hopeful." Also here are poems, 17 of them, originally collected at BuzzFeed (Nikki Giovanni's "Where Do You Enter" is among them). Siegel writes:
On Twitter, for the last week, I have been listening to, and sharing with the hope of amplifying, the voices of black women and men who are living with this fear, who know what it means to be afraid for their lives, whose parents and grandparents have raised them to be smart and do great things but above to all to be safe.
But looking at our editorial calendar for the week, I couldn’t remain silent. The Rumpus is a website that speaks out. And I am the Managing Editor of The Rumpus, and because I don’t have a budget and am disinclined to ask for free labor at this particular moment from those who are suffering, I think it is part of my job to say something. To acknowledge that while we are still running interviews and essays and going about our literary business, we also know that the world is on fire. Orlando.
That said, I’m speaking for myself when I say: I am white and I feel complicit. I feel ill. I know that I am not the problem, but that I am also part of the problem. I have been listening to those who really know the fear and pain of brothers and sons, mothers and daughters, walking around in constant danger, real danger—I understand, cognitively, what that must feel like and also know, of course, that I can never understand what that feels like. I feel it, but also cannot feel it.
Her list:
“Diamond ‘Lavish’ Reynolds, Public Witness” by Doreen St. Félix
“For Alton. For Philando. For All.” by Stacia L. Brown
“Alton Sterling and When Black Lives Stop Mattering” by Roxane Gay
“Dallas Is a Tragedy for All of Us—and Shouldn’t Shut Down Calls for Justice” by Ijeoma Oluo
“How Police See Us, and How They Train Us to See Them” by Greg Howard
“How Many Black People Can You Mourn in One Week?” by Hannah Giorgis
“Why It’s Important to Challenge the Power of the Gatekeepers” by Ijeoma Oluo
“Surviving Suffocating Sadness When You’re Black and Confused” by Ashley Weatherford
“17 Poems to Read When the World Is Too Much” by Hannah Giorgis and Tomi Obaro
Find more at The Rumpus.