This is the year...

Participants in the 2021 Advanced Practitioner’s Training closed the week by composing a “This is the Year” poem together. Portraits by Ajuan Mance

This is the year that the forest cried out and the people listened. When the Rights of Nature became Law of the Land; this is the year the people finally took their place within the circle of life and relationships grew deeper, brighter and meaningful beyond imagination; this is the year we became whole - as one nation.

This is the year that we will put a spotlight on how inequitable education is and take action to resolve it.  The year we take heed and listen to our bodies and our hearts.

This is the year that we remove the masks, while continuing to heal our spirits in community. 

This is the year that we find safety in our bodies, power in our breath, and endless possibility in the vibration of our voices. This is the year we sing freedom into the present.  

This is the year that we realize that people are more important than profits and that it is critical  for everyone to have quality and dignified jobs that allow them to sustain themselves and their families, be protected from workplace hazards and harms so that they can return home every day safe in mind, body and spirit to their families and communities.

This is the year that we heal the soil and ourselves for future generations who will have the knowledge and tools of our ancestors to become the keepers of our land and our stories and become  the agents of change in a food system rooted in radical hope and based on our own terms.

This is the year that calluses are kissed and cherished, rubbed with lavender and eucalyptus, that rough hands receive respect and proper restitution, and the digits that plucked gifts from the mud are clasped together in communion and celebration with community. 

This is the year that our fruits will bloom - salty tears turned sweet. At our backs is trauma and agony and in front of us is a bright future with open arms. Our ancestors and trancestors are here with us, you are here with us and I know that freedom is coming - I can taste it. Fear cannot come with us and has no room in our plans, Our destiny is rooted and steeped in fire and tenacity. Will you come with me?

This is the year that lovers giggle, reading feminist smut in the park, 

With not a single stare, snide remark or rude gesture. 

The year that my trans sisters slip gracefully into swimming pools, sipping homemade lemonade, loving themselves as much as they are loved by their dearest friends and sweetest lovers. 

This is the year that we flirt with abandon, write love poems with delicate careful urgency and allow ourselves to feel. 

This is the year that all people experience reproductive liberation. 

From pop stars who don’t control the IUDs in their bodies,

To teens too scared to talk to those in their lives they should be able to trust. 

All people will thrive and be free to determine, on their own terms, if, when, and how they bring children into this world.

This is the year when we see the lies of separation.

We recognize our interdependence.

Like peas in a pod.

Our Earth pod.

Whole, complex, connected, braided, and wildly, unapologetically feminist. 

This is the year that we do not go back to “normal.”

This is the year that I stop looking back at a country I never felt I belonged in and start building a new home for myself, on my own terms

This is the year that I step into my width, into a place where my voice doesn’t shake and the earth quakes as it hears my community crying for something better.

This is the year that single mamas and the daughters they could not protect build underground tunnels of connection beneath battlefields of political ties, religious lies and shame

This is the year that workers rise up, free themselves from the chained monotony of capitalism, reject powerlessness, and decide their own futures. This is the year that we as a country and as a whole world get to decide what we want out of life: do we spring forward boldly into the future, together as one, or do we embrace oblivion, forever apart? 

This is the year that young people of color breathe fresh air and greet classmates in person to extend a hug and commit to fighting for each other’s healing. This is the year that aunties and uncles work alongside the youths to clean our streets, plant our ancestral vegetables, and hang our lanterns.

This is the year that every home is recognized, respected, and protected as someone’s home and every community is recognized, respected, and protected as someone’s community.

This is the year that we all reconnect with the dreams of our ancestors. We remember that we come from the earth and live in deep and ceremonial connection with all beings. We live each day with care and consent. Honoring the sacredness of life. 

This is the year that our imaginations breaks through the chains imposed by those who said that the world as it is, is the only world that can exist

This is the year that we no longer ask permission to live the lives our ancestors dreamed for us. The year that lays the groundwork for a future that those that come next can be proud of. 

This is the year the rain returns.

This is the year that the struggle is laid to rest, and our minds and bodies take in the long awaited sun. Shining. Healing. Warming us inside out.

This is the year that we listen. We listen to our bodies, the mountains, the rivers, and the people with voices silenced by money and power. Take a deep breath and listen.

This is the year that Black, queer, Southerners who come from generations of storytellers, rise

Tell stories about worn Detroit basement floors about Black life, and work,

About courage and strength, tenderness and love to persevere

Where the stickiest of stories, sprout roots and ground us in who we are: Black and divine and resilient, and powerful and guided by joy 

This is the year we choose rest and center healing our wounds as an act of love

Guided by 7 generations that came before us, 

the present and the generations sprouting, we will dream, practice and create 

Legacies, power, joy and love that 

sustains, thrives, and is never taken from us- ever 

This is the year that we no longer fear for our children's futures at the hands of oppression, poverty, hatred, exploitation or a planet that has been driven off course. This is the year that we remember, heal, love and finally hear everyone's laughter flow freely and unburdened.

This is the year that 

Handcuffs are repurposed into candleholders

To light the path forward 

as we march 

through streets of abundance

With nutrition growing on every street corner

As we hold hands and dance

Knowing that we built this

From the ground up

This is the year that we stand up for not only ourselves but others; a year that the wheels of justice turn in our favor; corporations and governments get what they deserve for their greed; their need to oppress; suppress votes; disenfranchise and marginalize black, indigenous, and people of color; the year we stand up; raise our filled cups; spilling over with justice, hope, love, respect, integrity and happiness for us all. The year we no longer have to fight so hard for the bare essentials and needs that are human rights and not things in the middle of wars; things dangled over our heads. 

This is the year that we the people who are most impacted by oppression and the negative isms will reframe the story of what is possible and we will shift the narrative and step into our power and make the world what it should be for all. This is the year of possibilities!