In September, Emancipate NC hosted our seventh annual Poetic Justice event, welcoming a variety of poets to the Global Breath space. Church Da Poet read a poem written by an incarcerated Emancipate NC client, Phillip Vance Smith, II. Mesinjah sang a song about ending family separation and stopping the family police. Aye Jannay told the story of K.S., the child who was seized by the New Bern police department, and whom Emancipate NC represented in a $100,000 cash settlement. Purpose the Poet shared a story from the Fuller family in Gaston, the teenage twins Emancipate NC assisted last year after police issued trumped-up criminal charges against them. And Hausson Byrd brought us home at the end of the evening:
They kill us because it’s easier
Then expect you to go to work
. . .
How much art have they stolen from your life, from ours?
How many stanzas have never known freedom?
. . .
93 million miles between the Earth and our star
My spirit has developed a taste for sunshine
Bathing in the rays, feeling my skin drinking daylight
Winter is coming and the cold with it
So every day I hold on to every drop of light
Of heat that I can get
There is a word for this
Apricity is the feeling of the warmth of the sun on a winter’s day
Despite cold air
Solar heat can raise objects to much higher temperatures
My depression is a seasonal temptation to follow my worst thoughts
Down a rabbit hole but I have found joy in the darndest of places
Finding it one day at a time
Check out all the performances on YouTube.
Thank you once more to our sponsors. You made this event possible.
Signature Sponsors: North Carolina Black Alliance, Southern Vision Alliance, Ben Crump Law Firm
Freedom Sponsors: Paul Luebke and Frances Lynn Memorial Fund
Justice Sponsors: Democracy NC, Patterson Harkavy, Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, Anonymous, Anonymous
Advocate Sponsors: ACLU of North Carolina, Geri LaPlaca, Raleigh PACT, Steve Schewel & Lao Rubert, Elizabeth Stringer, Videri Chocolate Factory