I had the immense privilege of speaking at NorthStar Durham Church of the Arts’ first Sunday Service of the year, titled “No Time For Despair,” honoring the words and wisdom of none other than Toni Morrison. Below is a copy of the transcript.
Watch the full video here.
My name is Trey.
The way that I would best describe myself,
Is that I am a grief-stricken, queer Black writer from the rural South.
I grew up in a tiny little town about 2 hours away from here but Durham has had my heart for quite sometime.
And I am truly grateful and humbled to share space with y’all this morning.
//
When Dany, NorthStar’s new operations and outreach coordinator,
reached out to me to speak here today,
my fist reaction, my knee-jerk reaction, was to say no
out of fear,
ironically.
The story that I was telling myself is that
At this particular moment in time,
A time characterized by so much uncertainty,
So much loss,
A steady stream of headlines that feel at times, difficult, to even comprehend,
meant to keep us in a constant state of heightened reactivity,
Who am I to stand before you and offer grounding words of encouragement?
When I think of the type of artists and storytellers who, in the past,
have sat or stood before crowded rooms of people
to offer wisdom and guidance,
I think of Toni Morrison.
I think of Nikki Giovani.
I think of Dr. Maya Angelou
And because I’m from the Deep South
I think of Fannie Lou Hamer.
People whose mere presence
could shift the entire atmosphere of a space.
And that ain’t me.
However,
however,
As I started to prepare for this,
I was encouraged Toni Morrison’s words:
“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
Now y’all know,
When one of our elders tells us,
“speak up!
Speak up so I can hear you now!”
in that very specific tone?
y’all know the tone I’m talking about.
There is both instruction in their words—straighten up your back and let your voice be heard.
And there is encouragement in their words—you can do this, and I am with you.
And I receive both of those things here in this moment.
My hope, Is that by the time that I’m done speaking today,
I have successfully shrank the distance between
The Toni Morrison’s of the world,
and each of us in this room.
Because what this moment needs is not a room
full of world class writers and speakers.
What this moment needs,
as many of our ancestors remind us through their work
and through their words,
is just ordinary folks,
committed to a common goal of collective freedom.
Who are willing to practice being courageous,
to straighten our backs and speak up,
to make art,
to break bread,
to sheild our neighbors from ICE,
to protect our student protestors from state police,
to carpool
to provide childcare,
to check in on our elders,
And to do all of these things
in the face of danger and uncertainty.
Before I continue, I want y’all to join me
in a little collective affirmation,
If it feels supportive,
I want you to place one hand over your heart
(or somewhere else that feels nourishing if you are unable to reach your heart).
And I want you to place your other hand in the atmosphere
(again, if you are unable, place your other hand somewhere nourishing like your belly or your thigh).
And I want everyone to repeat after me:
“I am amongst friends. I am safe.
Together, we have the power to shape our future,
by practicing courage,
as our ancestors have done before us,
in the face of danger and uncertainty.”
Now shake it out if you need to and I want you to settle in.
//
A lot will be said over the coming days and months
about what’s to come,
and what must be done in response to it.
But I want to remind y’all that the threat we are faced with today
is not a new threat.
We have been here before.
And our ancestors, like Toni Morrison,
remind us that we have power
and we must make the choice to rise in that power together.
I don’t know about y’all,
But that makes me feel hopeful.
To know that we have collective power.
I want to read part of a speech that Toni Morrison gave
during Howard University’s Charter Day Celebration
back in 1995. That was 30 years ago.
In this speech, called “Racism and Fascism”
She talks about how fascism does not happen all at once.
It happens one step after another, after another, after another.
As I read these 10 steps,
take note of what sounds familiar,
Let the truth that “we have been here before”
settle deeply into your bones.
We are in a constant fight over our imagination.
And those in power want us to forget that
even in the midst of everything that is going on,
we still have agency, or the ability to act and shape our own circumstances.
Toni Morrison says that Step 1 involves
Creating an enemy.
(We have witnessed these racist, fascist administrations
launch attacks on Black, Brown, indigenous folks,
poor and working class folks,
folks who are queer and trans,
folks who are disabled,
folks who are seeking safety and asylum here,
anyone who thinks it is reasonable to have a say about what happens to their own bodies.
The State creates an enemy,
distorts the differences that exist between us in an attempt to turn us against on one another,
while distracting us from the the fact that we all share one common barrier to freedom, which is them.)
Step 2. Isolate and demonize that enemy through name-calling and abuse.
(We have witnessed these racist, fascist administrations
use language that dehumanizes people of color, queer folks,
immigrants, and folks with disabilities writ large.
Because when you make a people less than human through your words,
it becomes easier to justify the violence inflicted upon them.)
Step 3. Use the media to legitimize harm of that enemy.
(We have witnessed, for 484 days, the racist, fascist media
refuse to call what is happening to the Palestinian people a genocide;
refuse to say anything at all about the violence committed against the people of Sudan and Congo and Tigray
And Haiti, and Puerto Rico, Cuba and elsewhere
at the hands of Western powers.
We have witness the media mischaracterize Nazi salutes as “awkward gestures,”
While calling land protectors in Atlanta “domestic terrorists.”
Step 4. Build a barrier around all art forms; monitor, discredit, or expel any art that challenges the status quo.
(We are witnessing the criminalization of drag shows.
We are witnessing bans on books,
like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,”
in schools and in education curricula across the country.
Which makes spaces and gatherings like this inherently political and necessary to our resistance.)
Step 5. Criminalize anyone who aligns with or supports the enemy.
(We are witnessing institutions of higher learning
punish educators and students alike for demanding justice for the oppressed.)
Step 6. Turn the enemies against one another. Co-opt the enemies movements.
(We are witnessing liberal,
well-meaning healers and healthcare workers,
artists and creators,
educators and more,
bury their heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge the challenges that we are are facing,
And/or pretend that there are two equal opposing sides in this fight against fascism.)
Step 7 Pathologize the enemy in scholarly and popular mediums using things like scientific racism and the myths of racial superiority.
(We are witnessing the attacks on DEI initiatives across the country.)
Step 8. Criminalize the enemy. Build prisons for the enemy—especially its males and absolutely its children
(and I would also like add people of marginalized genders who also feel the full weight of State-sanctioned violence in this country.)
(We are witnessing cop cities and state of the art prisons pop up all over the country,
We see it now as this racist, fascist administration makes plans for Guantanamo Bay
to be used to house 30,000 of our siblings prior to deportation.)
Step 9. Distract the enemy with entertainment.
(We are witnessing celebrities remain completely silent about the tragedies happening in the world.
Artists have a responsibility to reflect what’s happening.
To disrupt power.
We must not allow ourselves to be lulled to sleep by those who
Sidestep this responsibility,
Who show no accountability to the people.)
Step 10. Maintain, at all costs, silence.
We have witnessed how speaking truth to power leads to the loss in livelihood,
and in some cases incarceration.
To put our finger on the truth, is to put ourselves at risk.
Although her analysis of racism and fascism was written 30 years ago,
Toni Morrison both predicts and explains everything that we are currently witnessing
with so much accuracy.
She finishes her speech with the following words:
“In 1995, racism may wear a new dress,
buy a new pair of boots,
but neither it nor its succubus twin fascism is new.
It can only reproduce the environment that supports its own health:
fear, denial, and an atmosphere in which its victims have lost the will to fight.”
When we remember that we have been here before,
we can resist being distracted and swept up by
every action, every statement, every headline
Intended to create an environment of fear, denial, and hopelessness.
When we remember that we have been here before,
We can respond from a grounded place.
We can live life with more intention.
//
Responding from a grounded place allows us to focus our time,
our energy and our resources on the things that we can control.
It allows us to exercise our agency.
It allows us to live with more intention.
I want to leave y’all with 3 strategies
to ground ourselves in
as we resist what’s happening around us,
what’s happening TO us,
As we press forward in our collective fight for freedom.
These strategies include:
being a good neighbor, practicing courage, and making art.
No. 1 - Being a good neighbor.
Andrea J. Ritchie and Adrienne Maree Brown remind us that large scale change,
the futures that we want to see,
are built at the level of relationship.
We must practice healthier ways of being in relationship with one another.
We must practice reaching across our differences to establish new connections,
to learn from one another.
We must practice being curious with one another.
We must engage in acts of care for one another.
We must grieve and heal together.
We must get to know our neighbors so that we can keep each other safe during moments of crises.
How will you practice being a good neighbor this week?
No.2 - Practicing courage instead of practicing fear.
When I hear Toni Morrison say that there is “no room for fear,”
I feel that she is not speaking to the feeling of fear,
But the practice of fear.
Fear will rise up in all of our bellies,
In response to threats that we are facing.
And we must learn to sit with the feeling of fear,
To listen to what it is trying to teach us.
But when it is time to act, we must practice being courageous in spite of our fear.
We metabolize our fear and release it,
through small acts of courage,
We do this so that fear is unable to make itself at home in our bodies.
How will you practice courage this week?
No. 3 - We must make art.
Ruthie Wilson Gilmore reminds us that
“freedom is not a destination, but a place that we are co-creating.”
If freedom is a place that we are all making together,
that makes each and every person in this room an artist.
Everyday that you wake up,
you are participating in the artistry of world-building
through the decisions that you make, both llarge and small.
When Toni Morrison says that “this is precisely the time when artists go to work,”
She is speaking about this time, right now,
she is speaking to all of us.
May we all, through the medium that best suits us,
With the unique gifts and talents that each of us possesses
Answer the call to make art that speaks truth to power.
What art will you make this week?
Thank y’all.
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