Kimberly Drew - Black Futures

AFFIRMATION

EVE L. EWING

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Zora J. Murff

Jaeshawn at 16, 2014

From the series Corrections

Image courtesy of the artist

Here is the story of this poem.

A few years ago, I was doing a poetry show at the type of venue where at the end of the night, the only payment was a wad of cash culled from whatever the take at the door had been, and where artists are therefore encouraged to bring and sell whatever they might have to bring and sell.

I had no book to my name and no enthusiasm about putting together a chapbook for this purpose, and therefore nothing to bring and sell. I decided instead to sell commissioned poems. If people donated a certain amount of money to an organization of my choosing, I would write a poem on a topic they selected. They could do whatever they wanted with the poem, although I reserved the right to publish it if I wished.

The organization I chose is called Liberation Library. They are a volunteer group that provides books to young people who are incarcerated in prisons in Illinois. The books they provide are based on the requests of the young people themselves. I think that detail matters a lot. I believe that for Black people, reading remains a radical act, and the self-determination inherent in choosing what one would like to readthe idea that young people deserve an element of desire, of joy, of autonomy in this regardis radical as well. (I mean this in both senses of the word: Children in prison choosing books for themselves is countercultural and transformative, and it also brings us to the very root of what reading means and what literature is for.)

One person emailed me with a simple request. She said that she did not need a poem. Instead, she asked that I write a poem for the young people themselves, something that I thought would be good for them.

Rather than try to write a poem rooted in identity, I decided to try to write one rooted in utility. I wanted to write something that someone could memorize easily, and therefore call on in moments of distress or uncertainty even if the text was not available. I thought about the many children who I have seen memorize Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins, or Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou, and decided to try to write a poem in that veinone with a structure and series of repetitions that would facilitate memorization. I wanted the poem to focus on the ever-present consistencies of the small miracles of our being. I was also inspired by Assata Shakurs Affirmation poem, which asserts the loveliness of similar small miracles. I believe in living, Shakur writes. I believe in sunshine. / In windmills and waterfalls, / tricycles and rocking chairs.

This is the poem that I ended up with. Its been printed and mailed and tucked inside of books shipped to young people in juvenile detention centers across the state of Illinois. I hope it can serve as a small reminder to them of how miraculous they truly are.

to youth living in prison after Assata Shakur

Speak this to yourself

until you know it is true.

I believe that I woke up today

and my lungs were working,

miraculously.

My voice can sing and murmur and ask,

miraculously.

My hands may shake, but they can hold

me, or another.

My blood still carries the gifts of the air

from my heart to my brain,

miraculously.

Put a finger to my wrist or my temple

and feel it: I am magic. Life

and all its good and bad and ugly things,

scary things which I would like to forget,

beautiful things which I would like to remember

the whole messy lovely true story of myself

pulses within me.

I believe that the sun shines,

if not here, then somewhere.

Somewhere it rains,

and things will grow green and wonderful.

Somewhere inside me, too, it rains,

and things will grow green and wonderful.

Sometimes my insides rain from the inside out

and then I know

I am alive

I am alive

I am alive

EWING

TA-NEHISI COATES AND JENNA WORTHAM

Author illustrations by Loveis Wise

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. It took place at the Portland Book Festival in Oregon in October 2017.

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