For Artists & Culture Bearers

2023
by Arleta Little

Community is crafted.
I thank our creatives and culture bearers:
who love us out loud and in ceremony
channeling the combustion of our grief, suffering, and trauma
these last years, across generations, and still

who remember and call on our ancestors
who said his name, Brother George Perry Floyd, Jr.
who held space at 38th and Chicago
who painted all the names on the pavement where his life was crushed out

who make murals, pen plays, spit poems, fire sculpture,
self-publish and sing
who dance and drum, photograph, film and
stencil our stories of struggle and survival

who sew solidarity
and carry the lists, the text chains, the phone trees, the family trees
who quilt kin and coalitions
who invite people to participate, to visit, to contribute, and to stay

who convene folks online and mask up in person
who teach us safety during COVID,
during protests, and in uncertain conditions,

who support our collective well-being
who remind us of the necessity of our breath and our joy
who bring us back to our bodies
who lead yoga, movement, and meditation in the parks, on screens,
and in the streets

who evolve new connections and economies with urgency and grace,
who engage elders, young folks, and each other
who buy land, rent buildings, build out studios,
and build up organizations

who work within institutions
who adapt programs to new platforms
who spur the disruption of sluggish and segregationist systems
and test the purpose and plasticity of policies

who report out from the corner, the courtroom, and the chatroom
who offer sleepless analysis, context, and critique
who sharpen and inform our participation

who center oppressed and impacted peoples and orient toward liberation
who call for accountability and access
who advocate for basic income, for living wages,
and for more just distributions of resources and power

who walk the rivers and camp in resistance
who live and have lived here all the while
declaring the sacredness of land and water

who know we are the ones and will not wait,
who assert our humanity, our inevitable connections with each other
and this Earth
and who hold a reverence for life
as replenishing as rain.