a k w a a b a

"I’ve come to take you home – home, remember the veld? the lush green grass beneath the big oak trees the air is cool there and the sun does not burn. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill, your blankets are covered in buchu and mint, the proteas stand in yellow and white and the water in the stream chuckle sing-songs as it hobbles along over little stones. I have come to wretch you away – away from the poking eyes of the man-made monster who lives in the dark with his clutches of imperialism who dissects your body bit by bit who likens your soul to that of Satan and declares himself the ultimate god! I have come to soothe your heavy heart I offer my bosom to your weary soul I will cover your face with the palms of my hands I will run my lips over lines in your neck I will feast my eyes on the beauty of you and I will sing for you for I have come to bring you peace. I have come to take you home where the ancient mountains shout your name. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill, your blankets are covered in buchu and mint, the proteas stand in yellow and white – I have come to take you home where I will sing for you for you have brought me peace."

- Diana Ferrus, a South African poet who wrote this about Sarah Baartmen (read more: here).  She came and visited one of my classes today and gave us a history lesson on South Africa, told us her life story, and read this and two other poems, one about her experience voting in the first democratic election in South Africa and the other about her reclaiming the Afrikaans language. What an amazing woman, she had me laughing, smiling, and crying the entire time. Check out her work online or buy her book, “I’ve Come To Take You Home.”

"writing against inequality is imperative. Denouncing injustice and oppression is not a naiive old-fashioned anti-intellectual concern… On the contrary, it is a vital historical task."

- Philippe Bourgois

"We could have never been, even though we once were."

- Chloe Mitchell (via iamchloemitchell), this woman is amazing. 

"Your Bitter Is My Sweet/Blame Game : Things used to be. Now they’re not. Anything but us is who we are. Disguising ourselves as secret lovers, we’ve become public enemies. We walk away like strangers in the street. Gone for eternity, we erase one another. No phone calls. No sweet text messages. We are mere specs of particles, floating, unknown to our partners’ existence. So far from where we came. With so much of everything, how do we leave with nothing? Lack of visual empathy equates to the meaning of L.O.V.E. Hatred and attitude tear us entirely. We meet at opposite poles and no longer can we bond like love birds to a song or flowers to a Daisy. The air smells of rotten love and burned hearts. We have trashed our over cooked love that now accompanies the bin of deceit. Don’t turn around. Continue walking away. Disappear into that darkness that rests upon your gritty shoulders. Let that dark cloud follow you wherever you go. So long ex-lover. Farewell."

- Chloe Mitchell

"When I am skating on the streets, I can feel people questioning my right to skate. Their opinions are meaningless to me. I really like skating and I won’t stop."

-

Fazilla, 12 years old Skateistan member

"I gave up going to cover the Olympics. It was two days before my trip to London and I changed my ticket and went to Syria instead."

- Goran Tomasevic, see his photo essay “18 Days with Syrian Rebels”

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

- Martin Luther King Jr.