Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the 124th in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems.
james, you whispered fire through a fractured tongue— each syllable a sermon, each truth a rung on the ladder we still climb to outrun this undone america.
your pen was prophecy, bled black and bold— told us how cold freedom walks when her hand is sold.
you gave us verbs that bite back, nouns that knelt in protest, and a mirror to face our nation’s unconfessed.
now in twenty-five, they wear masks called law while clawing at our rights like hunger with no jaw.
but we heard you, still hear you— your breath beating in the bass of every march, every cry, every case we build against their disgrace.
thank you, beloved witness, for living so we might resist, for dying so we could persist— in truth, in light, in clenched-black-fist.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #JamesBaldwin #Art #HappyBirthdayJamesBaldwin [”If this moved you, forward it to someone who forgot. Or someone who needs to remember, that there is still work to do.”]