A Poem In Three Parts, Part 1: A Story of Now
The Othering & Belonging Institute commissioned poet Michelle Lee aka "Mush" to write and perform a poem in three parts on bridging and belonging for the 2021 Othering & Belonging Conference. We will be premiering this poem and accompanying visuals—featuring an array of dancers, aerialists, and performers of all kinds—in three digital shorts directed by filmmaker Yoram Savion, with creative direction from conference emcee Sarah Crowell.
I: A Story of Now
we are in a monumental moment
a portal to change as Arundhati Roy calls it
a gateway between
one world and the next
if marked on a map of the human spirit
we are the space between
what is glorious and what is tragic
what is light and what is difficult
what is left and what is right
expanding our imaginations is what is required
when Grace Lee Boggs spoke these words
she empowered countless people around the world
to find the strength within, and together
to defy hate and to seek out love
love in the presence of our enemies
love in places we were made to believe
nothing good could grow
who will be a neighbor to the one who is hurt and wounded?
in a year of racial reckoning,
a global pandemic, escalating climate crisis
and a crack in the old structures of power
what would it look like to forgive?
to bridge
to a new world where our ancestors
remind us that our grief unleashed,
unbound, can move mountains
where love is a neighbor
who might pray to different gods
but is a friend to anyone
I mean, after all
are we not all artists of creative survival?
aren’t we all children of
travelers and seekers
island and mainland
New World and Old Country
--all trapped between the Hyphen that says
we are culturally, here and not
we are Asian women
we are born loud
we are Black Future and Power
we are fist and flower
we are summaries of nightmares
rewriting scarcity myths
we are redeeming mercy
for every Love we’ve killed
without even knowing it
we are freedom fighters
we were sent from the past
my story be a soundtrack
to the best cooked meal you’ve ever had
we are more
than the stories written
of us without us
in the world we are becoming
(the one we’re making today)
we get to be soft and silent
by choice
in the world we are becoming
the one we are both breaking and remaking
we lay down our guns and for once,
we feast first;
while the rice is still hot
and army stew still rich in meat
when the moonshine is cold
and the clay pot steams
let us speak something sweet
into the ear of great grief
let us speak ourselves into a good story
let us break the injustice of our forebearers
without forgetting the rage that kept us alive
let us break from the rules made to divide
let us meet this monumental moment
with a story of who we be
as people
when we dare to belong
when we risk believing
in a world where everything made broken
can be made whole
again
