&&&’s Spring Issue Introduces…
A Yearlong Street Novena
for Racial Justice
Since mid-April, I have been practicing a series of street novenas with a few friends, who have done it remotely, from their respective locations. When the initial nine days were completed, I felt a need to continue. Mary Fran suggested we wait seven days, with time to reflect on what had happened, before beginning again. We decided we would continue that way, nine days on, seven days off, nine days on, seven days off, “like beads.” This rhythm, of beads and spacers, is what we have been following, and which we invite you to join, until we make a full string of prayers around the year to the end of next spring: for racial justice.
Brown and black communities are dying disproportionately from the coronavirus. They are also being killed.
Recent killings, by law enforcement and civilians, in the U.S. alone, include:
Ahmaud Arbery (age 25, May 8, 1994 – February 23, 2020)
Breonna Taylor (age 26, June 5, 1993 – March 13)
Nina Pop (age 28, b.? – May 3, 2020)
Dreasjon “Sean” Reed (age 21, June 16 – May 6, 2020)
Dion Johnson (age 28, b.? – May 25, 2020)
George Floyd (age 46, October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020)
Tony McDade (age 38, b.? – May 27, 2020)
David McAtee (age 53, b.? – June 1, 2020)
Rayshard Brooks (age 27, b.? – June 12, 2020)
(If you know any of the missing birthdates, please share them with me so that I can add them.)
With over 400 years of systemic racism on this nation’s soil, &&& will be entirely dedicated, from now until next spring, and beyond, to racial justice and to celebrating a few of the countless, major contributions of African Americans.
In action and prayer, the next issues of &&& will focus on, and will continue to stay committed to, the following:
Summer 2020 Issue:
July: Acknowledgement of Systemic and Entrenched Racialized Injustice
August: For Equality in Access to Healthy Foods, Healthy Living Conditions, and Medical Care
September: For Economic Parity
Fall 2020 Issue:
October: For Protection of Voting Rights
November: For Police Reform
December: For Reform to the Criminal Justice System
Winter 2020/2021 Issue:
January: For Equity in Education
February: For Safe Working Conditions and for Equal Employment Opportunities
Spring 2021 Issue: March and Beyond: For Integral Ecology / Environmental Justice (which is inseparable from Racial Justice)
I am grateful to the student who, in a course I was teaching this June, brought to my to attention the prophetic work of John Wilson (1922-2015). Particularly poignant are his studies for the mural he painted in 1952, of an African American family witnessing a horrific lynching by the Ku Klux Klan. While the mural itself, entitled The Incident, is no longer extant, the studies, sketches and paintings, based on images Wilson saw in the paper as a child, were preserved. Last year, they traveled from the Faulconer Gallery, at Grinnell College, to the David C. Driskell Center, at the University of Maryland, College Park, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, and then to the Yale University Art Gallery.
Quoting the description on the Driskell Center website:
“The exhibition examines this critical body of Wilson’s work and provides a context for his practice as a whole, which was devoted to art and social justice. It also serves as a prompt for larger, more in-depth discussions about the history of racial-terror lynching in America and the profound physical and emotional scars it has left on the country’s collective consciousness.”
May we not turn away from these devastating images. Rather, may we study them and amplify (or magnify) them, as John Wilson did through his artwork, and, as a result, repair, as much as possible, the traumas, wounds, and scars of centuries of white supremacy and racialized injustice until, as individuals, a nation, a world, and, most of all, one family, we can together sing with conviction: “We have overcome.”
Although Epiphania needed to cancel our original plans for the seed-bomb-making workshops and Earth Day pilgrimage, it was with far greater awareness and intentionality that dozens of seed-bombs, made last fall, of native, non-invasive, pollinating seeds (for my region, California Poppies and Gilia), were strewn onto neglected or desecrated land, during this spring's novena. I can already see, in some places, new life rising.
This spring, I have donated to several places requesting support, including the Benicia Mask Makers, founded by Bodil Fox, who have made over 7,600 masks for public health workers and for the community. To help offset their costs, consider donating through Paypal to Ruby Wallis @ beniciaruby@yahoo.com.
In the next issues of &&&, we will send more specifics for the novena, which follow the general guidelines described in our introductory newsletter, always open for adaption:
& An intention or intentions (stated above).
& A saint, canonized or not, to entrust the need.
& Nine days, with start and end dates (we started on 4/14, with an initial end-date on Earth Day, 4/22. With the beaded pattern of seven days off, followed by nine days on, we will continue through March 2021).
& A practice (we are walking, with additional practices, which will be shared in the forthcoming newsletters).
As we are a community of learners, I invite you to please share your racial-justice prayers, protests, lamentations, and visions for the future here.