By Mychal Denzel Smith • @mychalsmith • 9 years ago

Keeping Marissa in mind

I was honored to participate in this campaign, Keeping Marissa in Mind, organized by the extraordinary activist Mariame Kaba. The poem I’m reading in this video is called “Flare” and it’s written by National Book Award winner Nikky Finney. 

And I appreciate the name of the campaign. Daily, there are new outrages, and it’s easy to lose track, or allow something that once consumed your attention to fall by the wayside. But Marissa Alexander is still facing up to 60 years in prison and needs our support.

And I can’t help but look at what’s happening in Ferguson and St. Louis, with the shooting deaths of Michael Brown and now Vonderrit Myers, seeing so many black women showing up to fight for justice on behalf of black men, and then not feel that sense of responsibility to show up for black women. It’s a duty, and one we should feel called to perform out of love and respect.

Keep Marissa in mind this month, and in the months going forward, because she hasn’t gone anywhere. She’s still fighting for her life, her future, and that of her children and family. We can’t disappear on her now.

MychalMychal Denzel Smith is a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute.

Mychal Denzel Smith is a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute and contributing writer for The Nation Magazine, as well as columnist for Feministing.com and Salon. As a freelance writer, social commentator, and mental health advocate his work has been seen online in outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, Salon, Al Jazeera English, Gawker, The Guardian, Ebony.com, Huffington Post, The Root, and The Grio.

Mychal Denzel Smith is a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute and contributing writer for The Nation Magazine, as well as columnist for Feministing.com and Salon.

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