Project Description
Black Mothers Remember…
Black Mothers
remember you are warriors
the root of African Nations
courageous
resilient
resolute
you hold truth on your side
you are light
in the devastation
makers of ways
when there are none
your existence is revolutionary
their institutions
will try and convince you
to chew up
and spit out
your Black seeds
but you must remain firm
resistant to their racism
and heteropatriarchy
they will try and manipulate your psyche
into doing their bidding
they will lynch you
in the media
champion you
in the media
coerce you
with their thug shaming agenda
but you must be wiser than their tricks
their stones
and their sticks
though their words may hurt
you will persevere
you are survivors
diamonds
polished through flame
you are the calm
in torrential rain
the line in the sand is before you
cross over it
with village in tow
carry forward the torch of our Ancestors
lift up your vibrations
and seek out the answers
you will find they are inside you
Tawana Petty is a mother, award winning activist, social justice organizer, poet and author. She is the past recipient of the Spirit of Detroit Award, Woman of Substance Award, Women Creating Caring Communities Award, and was recognized as one of Who’s Who in Black Detroit in 2013.
In addition to Tawana’s social justice work, she has performed across the globe. She has been featured on NPR/WDET, AM 1440, FM 107.5, on former Detroit Councilwoman JoAnn Watson’s television program Wake Up Detroit, on the Motown Writers Network, and on former Rolling Stone Editor Dave Marsh’s national radio program Living in the Land of Hopes and Dreams. Her work and writings have also been featured in the Huffington Post, the Michigan Citizen, on Shetroit.com, on Truth-Out.org and in Red Pepper Magazine (UK). She has been a featured speaker and performer at several colleges, universities, secondary schools and prestigious events.
As an organizer, she led the social justice initiatives Detroit 2012, Detroit 2013 and the New Work New Culture Conference, which brought thousands of people collectively to Detroit to engage in visionary organizing and healing work. She was also co-organizer of the People’s Forum II: State of Emergency, which mobilized an intergenerational dialogue among Detroiters around emergency management. She has also been actively engaged in the water struggle in Detroit and was invited to speak at the United Nations in New York in 2014 as a representative for Detroit. As a member of The Foundation, which celebrates women in hip hop, she utilizes her creativity and activism to resist misogyny and sexism in music, media and other forms of propaganda by reshaping the narrative.
Tawana, also known as Honeycomb on stage, is the author of Introducing Honeycomb and is currently working on her second book.
This piece was reprinted by EmpathyEducates with permission or license. We thank the Author, Poet, and mother, Tawana Petty for her kindness, strength, wisdom, and for caring — a remembrance.
