Don’t believe the hype. In the four years since George Floyd was murdered, things have changed. Not nearly as much as we want, but people and communities all over the world are different now because of what we witnessed and challenged and vowed to fight even harder against. You can’t always measure change with statistics, laws, proposals, or studies. You can, however, always measure change through the stories of people.
In the four years since George Floyd was murdered, SAY THEIR NAMES was born (as were many other books that have explored themes of peace, justice, and protest in response).
Countless numbers of people, including children pre-school to college, have read SAY THEIR NAMES or have had it read to them, and have listened to my talks and performances.
They have learned about George Floyd’s life, and legacy.
They have said his name and the names of so many other Black men, women, and trans who have lost their lives to police brutality, and understood that we say their names.
We say their names to,
As Curtis Mayfield encourage, “keep on pushin’
And move up a little higher…”
We say their names to paraphrase John Lennon in his lyrics, “Imagine, if you can,
A simple brotherhood of man.”
Through SAY THEIR NAMES (and other works), countless numbers of people have been encouraged to imagine and work toward a better world.
They have been invited to tap into the more than 30 gifts that Aliya brings to us in this story.
They have confessed to understanding that if they walk into a room or situation and there is no peace, they will bring and embody the peace. If there is no justice, they will bring and embody the justice. If there is no community, they will bring and embody the community. If there is no joy, they will bring and embody the joy. If there is no love…you get the picture… (WE bring and embody the love. We can predict the future by being the future…)
SAY THEIR NAMES is now a 2024 Anna Dewdney Read Together Award Honor Book. It is a 2024 selection of the Teaching for Change social justice literature curriculum. Countless lives are being touched. So, don’t believe the hype. Four years is a blip on the landscape of time, on the thrust of history. Some things have changed because many of us changed. And we have vowed to keep fighting for a world where Black lives matter.
(Pictured: Father of three young children sharing his excitement about SAY THEIR NAMES with local artist at The Well at Oxon Run in August 2022. Photo by Caroline Brewer)
About what the Anacostia High School students saw
with their own eyes,
and filtered through their lived experiences.
This book is about voice.
About what came from the students’ mouths
–rhythmically, poetically, chronologically, with vulnerability —
about what they observed, reflected on,
and processed alone and in community with one another.
And in the seeing and speaking,
they have given us a book to cherish
— a book of poems, essays, reports, and images
that reveals what they felt, emotionally,
what they touched physically,
what they tasted, and what they heard.
And we owe them our deepest appreciation,
because what they have given us is profound!
The book is about journeys,
each of us separately, and all of us together
liberating ourselves, flying, like the birds, free,
dismantling the shackles of fear,
overcoming our insecurities,
touching truth and becoming one with it.
This book is about partnerships.
Many thanks to Conservation Nation
for sponsoring my Nature-Wise program with
the students, to Xavier Brown for
inviting me in to host the literacy
and the environment training,
to Patrick Gusman, UDC, the
Department of the Interior and
NPS for leading the establishment
of this summer internship program
and enthusiastically supporting our efforts
to engage the students as thinkers, readers, writers,
and critical observers of their relationship to nature
and in how to become even better advocates
for sustainability.