For The Love of Black People

On never letting anything steal the essence of Blackness.

“We Alive, Beloved” release party on Juneteenth captured by Sayra Havranek.

In recent days, two occurrences have consumed my thoughts with an intensity that speaks volumes about the reality we live in. One is the harrowing loss suffered by Black progressive Congressman Jamaal Bowman in the New York District 16 primary, where he was defeated by George Latimer, a white centrist and genocide apologist. The second is the indignity of police harassment that marred my Juneteenth book release party for “We Alive, Beloved,” a celebration held in an event space in Brooklyn. As we gathered to honor the resilience and creativity of Black existence, daring to revel in the melodies of Marvin Gaye on a sunlit afternoon, the police intruded, as if to remind us that our joy, our very being, is always under siege.

These incidents, disparate in their specifics but unified in their implications, illuminate the stark landscape of Black American struggle. There is much to be unpacked in future essays about the insidious role of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), which wielded racism and a staggering $20 million to engineer Bowman’s defeat, and about the pervasive nature of police forces in this nation—institutions that, by their very existence, are antithetical to any true notion of Black or Brown liberation.

I will write about these things, as I often do. But right now, I want to focus on the other side of these moments. The side that is more profound, more elemental: the miraculous nature of Blackness to shine despite the weapons being set against us.

To be Black in our world is to live under the unrelenting shadow of white supremacy, a force that will stop at nothing to dismantle, demean, and destroy our very essence. But to reduce the Black experience to merely the antithesis of white oppression is to overlook the boundless depth and richness that defines us. We are not merely the other side of cruelty; we are the embodiment of so much more.

This is the heart of my poetry collection, “We Alive, Beloved,” a musing on the myriad of ways in which Blackness defies, transcends, and flourishes. It was vital for me to host my book release on Juneteenth, because as much as the day is about commemorating our ancestors' hard-won freedom. But I believe it is also a day to live into unencumbered Blackness as much as possible. Which is why I threw a private book release on Juneteenth. Because I wanted it to reflect my goal for the book — to be as Black and free as possible.

The book release was simple on the surface: soul food, soul music, drinks, and wonderful Black people gathered together. But to be around Black people in a space curated to be as free of white supremacy as possible is to see that there is never anything simple about it. Black people existing freely and joyfully even for a brief while is a radical act in such a deeply anti-Black society. To dance, to laugh, to break bread together—these are not mere moments of socialization. They are affirmations of our humanity, declarations that our spirits remain unbroken despite the relentless attempts to shatter them.

I struggle to think of many things more beautiful than Black people getting to just be free and joyful with one another. In those moments, we are untethered from the weight of history, the unrelenting barrage of microaggressions, and the omnipresent gaze that seeks to define and confine us. We are more than survival; we are the full spectrum of human emotion, unburdened and unbound.

It is in the laughter that spills over like a burst of sunlight through a canopy of leaves, the easy banter that flows like a river finding its course, and the dances that are less about choreography and more about the soul taking flight. It is in these moments that our true selves emerge, radiant and unapologetic. Here, we reclaim our narratives, our bodies, and our futures.

There is a poetry in the way we gather—a language of shared glances, of knowing smiles, of hands clapping in rhythm. To see Black children playing, their laughter untainted by the world's harshness, is to witness the embodiment of hope. To watch elders, the keepers of our stories, swaying gently to the melody of a familiar song, is to feel the pulse of history in the present moment. To look in the mirror and see your Black brow with sweat beads flowing from dancing to everything the DJ dared play, is to understand yourself as a beloved being worthy of everything good in this world.

In these gatherings, we create spaces where love is both the foundation and the framework. We fashion worlds within worlds, where our culture, our traditions, and our innovations are celebrated without reservation. We become magicians, transforming the pain of our collective existences into the gold of our present joys.

I'm sharing these thoughts on this event of mine because I think it's important that everyone understand that this Juneteenth brunch is what I mean when I speak of freedom for my people and, in actuality, all people. The ability to simply be happy. Be fruitful. Be in community. Be safe. Be Black.

To gather in the warmth of a sunlit room, the air alive with the hum of conversation and the rhythm of Marvin Gaye's voice, is to glimpse a world where our existence is not a series of battles but an endless sky of joy. It is to reclaim the narrative that has been torn from us, to stitch it together with threads of laughter and shared history. There, in that space, we were not defined by our struggles but by our capacity for love, for creation, for simply being.

And when we ultimately left and went back to the outside world, the same struggles were waiting for us. But my God if they weren’t just a bit lighter. Which is entirely the point of it all.

I invite you to view Sayra Havranek’s photos of the event and see what my vision of freedom looks like: https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/212c82afd30e40f5ab4f3a8840d4927c

Just a bunch of bestselling authors, brilliant educators, and masterful creatives posing for a photo that should be hung in the Louvre.

---

Also, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has purchased “We Alive, Beloved.” Your support has been nothing short of incredible, and thanks to you, I now have another bestselling book as it made the USA Today bestseller list this week. This is no easy feat for a poetry collection, and it means the world to me that so many of you have embraced this work with open hearts and minds.

I'm also thrilled to share that “We Alive, Beloved” was chosen as one of Book Riot's best books of 2024 so far.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me. Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for believing in the power of my words.