Week, i just went to thank you all for tuning in for the Schaumburg Center celebrate 95 years is one of the worlds leading altar institutions devoted to research, preservation and education materials global on the black experience. Whether does remain closed and migrated online real can access parts of archival collection and enjoy our literary festival. This festival continues to expand the schaumburgs long tradition of celebrating and uplifting authors of african entrance african descent from across the globe. Were excited youre here and have so much to share in theater today. Enter marks to authors who have been doing incredible work. So please remember to follow the schedule at the schaumburg. Todays the last day but we still have a full day of incredible programming. We also want you to stay engage engaged. Follow on social media Schaumburg Center. Use the chat to ask questions and comments. Just keep it pg because the kids are watching per therell be a q a following this program. Again your question into the chat. We will try to get to his many of them as possible. And lastly as a reminder were recording this program for archives. We are a Schaumburg Center that is what we do. But u. S. The audience for sure will not be a part of that. Our next program i cant even tell you how deep and psyched and nerdy, black nerd ms. Im coming to this program. It is called reading from the voracious. A person say my work at the Schaumburg Center specially founding the schaumburg first black lives matters conference has been inspired part i cannot imagine how many of you are watching and know how one person among so many has influence our lives for the better. Im excited to start conversation reading from the barre should with you all. Two oh tell you more your class bestseller what the hell you do when she a y a adopted work that we are going to talk about today. The cofounder of the black lives matter is dick more clicks on humanity. Necessary and timely patrice gives us a story the protests of the most viable comes from love and always comes from the black lives Matter Movement of interiors are threats to. But in truth they are loving lives that led them to suggest this for the lives but powerful. This memoir is a testament to their work and love for will begin todays programming with a brief reading. as a young adult aand to remind everybody that the work that we are going to free black people is work that spans decades and centuries and we have so much hopefulness in front of us, there is massive leadership in the streets, theres massive leadership in congress, theres massive leadership across the globe and its going to take every single one of us to show up, be present, to transform this moment. I feel hopeful, we always say this in our movement but when we fight, we win. Im going to read from chapter 10 of the book and we have a new cover, i love this cover so much, such beautiful colors. This chapter is a chapter that is focused on my local organization that i started called dignity and power now. The organization has taken on the largest jailer in the world which is Los Angeles County jail system. The largest Sheriffs Department in the country. And has been successful at winning and started off as a group of five people in my living room talking about how do we stop the violence by Sheriff Deputies to incarcerated individuals. Almost 8 years later we have had some of the most profound victories, almost every elected official said we wouldnt be able to be successful in winning. This is this chapter. Every defeat, every help break, every loss contains its own lesson on how to improve. Malcom x. Black people cannot go on until we raise up and revolt. That is a journal entry in this chapter that one of my journal entries. Montys always been the sibling closest to me, he is the one i play with the most, joke with the most, our relationship has nearly its own language, not in the way we think of when we think of twins but me and monte, we never need full sentences, wholly spoken thoughts to communicate with one another. In every way, he is my best friend. Losing him at such a young age as an Early Childhood wounds that will take me more than a decade to really unpack, understand, and begin to try to heal. Im 11 when the police are picking up monty, who was then 14 and putting him in julie for hanging out in the streets, for underage drinking, for tagging which gives him puts on National Gang database and im still a teenager when he is tortured by the Los Angeles CountySheriffs Department. Theres a difference between abuse and torture. Both are affordable, often unbearable and both leave scars. Neither can be minimized. But i make the distinction here in order to explain that while abuse may or may not be intentional, it is often spontaneous, torture is always intentional, it is always premeditated. And its planned out and its purpose is to deliberately and systematically dismantle a persons identity and humanity. Its designed to destroy a sense of community and eliminate leaders and create a climate of fear. This is the definition used by the center of victims of torture. In a sentence, torture is terrorism and this is what my brother indoors. Hes not alone because while i know the basics of what he experienced the first time he was sent to la county jail in 1999, a jail run by the Sheriffs Department, it will not be until 2011 when i read a report issued by the aclu of Southern California that i fully understand what was done to my brother there. This is this abbefore the attack on the World Trade Center and the pentagon, before the second goal for, the skill to torture people were honed in this nation on people who were not terrorists, they were victims of terrorism. You grieve, you learn, song lyrics in the book by alanis morrissette. In the fall 2011 weeks after montys come home from state prison and days after hes back in my mothers house from the hospital stay, im in our college in on this site and going through my email when i noticed one from aclu of Southern California. They have filed an 86 page complaint against the la county sheriffs sheriffs apartment for torture. 70 of the 86 pages are testimonies from survivors of those who are witnesses to torture. The report, which includes prisoners testimonies and that of jailhouse chaplains who could not be silent reveals the that under the watch of sheriff lee baca, torture in the la county jail which was for at least two decades pervasive, gruesome, systemic and routine. There was the scope of the report is staggering. The sheer number of individuals who have kicked in the testicles, set upon and beaten by several deputies at once, individuals tased for no apparent reason, bones broken by the guards, wielding flashlights at every tool that became an instrument of extreme violence and americas largest jail is breathtaking. Other elements of the torture almost broke me as he read the words of a civilian who testified about a wheelchairbound prisoner who deputies pulled off his bed, kicked and need in his ribs back and neck and shot with pepper spray in his face. I began to hyperventilate and remember my brother drinking out of the toilet, my god, i cant breathe. We cant breathe. Mr. Ggg testified about the deputy forcibly searched, prisoners with a flashlight ab placing the flashlight half an inch into the prisoners rectum, which caused extensive enough injury that the man bled and bled but he didnt complain because the last prisoner who did was taken away, attacked by several other guards, screams, hunting that refuses to be harmed or set aside. It returns and returns. Number please. Fingers, hands, collarbones, jaws and ribs broken. Prisoners who were already rendered unconscious continue to be assaulted and most every case the prisoner was reported by independent observers, of not resisting, many were handcuffed from the moment of the attack was initiated. One man was stripped and locked naked in the cell with other prisoners who encouraged ab male guards participated in torture, female guards participated in torture, everyone knew what was happening. Medical staff knew what was happening. The sheriff knew what was happening. It is reading this that makes me finally understand in a way had not before what had been done to my brother. My monty, my best friend. Stripped, beaten, starved, forced to drink from the toilet. What else . And what else. Montys testimony is not egregious, the stories my brother is our survivor and my whole family is. I began flashback and suddenly its 1999 and i watching my mother desperately try to find my brother, my mother is calling and calling and no one is helping her. I am a kid i want someone to help my mother i want someone to help my brother i want someone to help me but no one does. Please, i can hear my mother say as though its happening again, please, im looking for my son abin my cottage in the village in 2011 i began to cry as mark anthony and ray circle around me in support, whats happening, they want to know. I shake my head and overwhelm and point to the screen and reach for the bulbs and call my mother. Mom, are you there . She said yes. Can hear me too . She mustve signaled him to pick up another extension, they are suing the la county jail for torturing prisoners. My mother and monty are silent and after several seconds may be as long as i have a minute my mom says, thank god. And then after an even longer pause monty says, slowly and quietly but ever so resolutely, finally. Immediately i know i want to tell the world what has happened and i say to mark anthony and ray i have to do an art piece. Almost immediately i go to work, i pull together for friends with exquisite performers, i call my mother and asked, do you have documentation of the phone calls he made to the jail . I sure do, she says, i kept everything. I get the documentation and audiotape program recorded her written record i get the audio of the sheriff and the undersheriff being questioned by the commission that spoke together after the report is released, and i approached the local artspace is often allowed us to do political performance work, call the work stained and when audience walk in they see on the walls testimonies. Caution tape separates the audience members from four performers each standing alone as is in solitary confinement each uses their body in a different way to demonstrate the impact of being caged. One brother does herpes until he collapses, one woman laughs until she starts crying and then starts laughing again and whoops up for the entire show, one person paces and circles refuses to stop except the final performer jumps and jumps trying to desperately reach a sky they cannot see. Audience hears the recorded audio they hear the dates and notes my mother kept and took of the dozens of calls she made the show will pour for two years by the second show my homegirl, who Strategy Center francisca say to me, you have to do more, you can do more. She nurtures me and my growth and my vision with love and support of the midwife. And i want to not one more person to know what monty or any of the other prisoners in that report no, i want no family to ever feel what we felt. As the Program Towards the began to envision and create the infrastructure for a campaign, the coalition to end violence, launched in september 2012 our initial goal is to establish and ensure civilian oversight of the Sheriffs Department but as organizing work grows mark anthony and i know we need to fully realize organization in order to support it. Im scared to do this of course. I also know i am not 17yearold patrisse who first came to the Strategy Center, the one organization i been a part of for all these years, the organization that i volunteered for, at that point until all my adult life. While i am committed to leave my proverbial home and take it to the world all the lessons its given me including two large execute and win campaigns by building power amongst those the world considers powerless. If we could do that we could stop the Sheriffs Office with moms and dads and Sisters Brothers and cousins and friends whose loved ones have disappeared, whose loved ones have been beaten, whose loved ones have been tortured we Call Organization dignity and power now and in 2016 do you believe you have the power to forge positive change . How can you get involved. The end. Wow, thank you so much patrice. Ive got to tell the folks watching i read the book i remember that segment of the book, that was only a fraction of this book and if you are blown away by the fraction of this book, you cant even imagine whats in store for you when you read the entire memoir. I want to thank you for that excerpt. While you are speaking i just wanted to draw back when you first said when we open how you were just coming to this space intentionally. I want to set an intentional space where we can just acknowledge all thats happening around us but still be hopeful and share in a space of joy. Ive enjoyed being with you so far this morning and this afternoon. I want to start with just how much you paid so much attention to language and the naming of things is so crucial. This is exquisite in the title of the book and even reading montys story but you use words like abuse, torture and then terrorism. For so many people now the concept of terrorism is mostly 9 11 but you are experiencing terrorism, the type of terror way before then. Can you talk more about the selection of this title and what the word terrorism actually gets to the heart of and calling it and naming it. We were thinking about several titles this wasnt the original title. I think asha text me early in the morning she said i have the title of the book and i said what you got . And she said when they call you a terrorist. I was like yes, thats it. I cannot argue with that. We felt like that was important because we wrote the book as an intervention to the idea that the black women who started black lives matter and the black postmasters organizers and activists were terrorists they knew it was propaganda being used to undermine the movement and the propaganda used to undermine black ab wanted to make sure we have a different conversation i thought it was important to keep it plain. Really get to the root im not interested in sugarcoating what we been named and how we have named it. The impact violence and torture has had in our Community Think its really important and when i talked to asha about what happened in the jails i said this is torture its not abuse. Its not Police Brutality its Police Terror. Its not someone getting in a fit of rage and then acting out from emotions, its premeditated. Its strategic, systematic. Thats why Police Terror and torture happen so often and frequently and people ask, if we just train them differently we have to remember this is exactly how they been trained. That becomes overly critical moments and opportunity for us to just be honest about whats happening. And love that idea of being honest about whats happening, i brought up the idea of language and naming it. Some of my favorite writers are always like, we have to be specific in our language and calling it. I love it. Immediately when i was reading this book, and overcoming a lot of questions about black lives matter but reading this book and seeing how much trauma and terror was normalized in your childhood and even thinking about it had me thinking and reflecting on my job how much terror i experienced and witnessed. I wanted to know for you when did black lives matter actually start for you. Its the reason why we decided to write a memoir and not a polemic. Because the black lives matter started for me the moment i could understand what was happening around me and communicate both in my body, maybe not verbally but communicate what my community was experiencing was unacceptable. I think that starting off from my childhood given what i witnessed as a child and what my Community Witness as we were all children really does give the framework for black lives matter. For me and why i would choose to be a part of starting and helping develop a movement to get black people free because i have been trying to do it since i was a child. Ive been recognizing the necessity for black freedom sense as long as i can remember. Is there a specific moment you can call back to when you just a no. People ask this question a lot. Its a cumulative. I think of someone when you grow up in poverty and grow up experiencing multiple Government Agencies and neglect and abuse and torture your family from the police to social services, to social welfare state to watching my mother work three or four jobs and still not making enough money to take care of her four children, this becomes aball of these experiences become very clear to me that black people are not seen as human, that the system in place doesnt believe in our humanity. I cant locate one moment because its not one moment, its so many moments that happen, sometimes simultaneously. Theres not like, this happened and then one year later another bad thing happened its like actually all the bad things are happening all the time all at once because its purposeful because there is no love, care, or dignity for poor people, especially if you are poor and black. Im thinking about i totally agree, just build up and builds up, at some point it has to be released. We all release in different ways and im thinking about why i love the reading questions at the end of each chapter. Im curious, you said earlier before we got on the call that this is not a revision, this is not rewriting your 2018 memoir, this is actually in addition to. I wanted to speak to the questions that you add to this text and why they matter so much especially for the reader. When we are adapting this memoir i wanted to i see this book as a love letter to younger millennias and generation z to give them an opportunity to read about somebody they probably heard about, listen to before and take the time to reflect on their own upbringing and whats happening for them. I was a young activist, i was started activism when i was 16 years old and i was hungry to read every single black woman book, read their story, learn about how they navigated. I needed to see myself. Im really offering that, and the ending of the chapter with the questions gives young people in particular the opportunity to reflect on just what they read but their own life. , much of my work is in youth organizing, i was youth when i started youth organizing and much of the work i did as a youth organizer was offering young people to reflect on their own reality and how it relates to how to change the system. Weve seen so many young people stand up in this moment, both because they are being impacted would also trying to be amazing allies to each other and i think thats incredibly important. I was blown away about how young you started youth activism. But i wasnt surprised. Whenever i have the black lives matter conference at the Schomburg Center i started with a slideshow of historical moments where abemmett till story of how young people impacted by racial violence. The four young women in birmingham we have so many examples of young people protesting, doing sit ins and we dont often tell that until they get older, we dont remember young people play a huge role in how we protest and who is really vocal about these things. Im curious to know what spaces because i know you mentioned cleveland, the people in your book, you talk about brotherhood and sisterhood in the programs the afterschool programs youths you participated in peace that was was it about those spaces allow you to cultivate your activism, using your confidence in your leadership. It was a very specific teachers, i talked about one of them in my book, his name is a ahe was 27 years old and i met him he had been working with young people for a long time. One of the main things i remember in my meeting him was that he always respected me as a young person. He really taught me what it looks like for older people to ally shift with young people. Is one of the first people i went to when my brother monty was released from prison. He was always such a northstar for me. Its a scary time, its confusing, both living under a Global Pandemic that none of us have experienced, its all New Territory from the uprising to the lack of clarity of what happened in november. This is a really really anxiety inducing time and i think young people need and should give a ton of support from adults right now. I totally agree. I keep saying i cant wait to recommend this to so many of my students. Even this if they dont have a trusted adult in their life i think this book is going to be tremendous in their healing and working and processing. Im going to switch gears and ask you more about your younger self. You mentioned earlier that youre hungry for representation, books and things like that, what works for you reading at that young age . Everything. My go to was sisters of the m by bell hooks. Literally at 16 years old i would walk around my high school always with that book in hand if it wasnt in my hand it was in the base of my back because i would put my books in my pants in the base of my back. And whip it out if i was hanging out with friends. There was a book called the borders used to go to. I remember borders i would sit and read for hours and hours because i couldnt afford books. I would sit and read the books that borders. Audrey lord, pretty much everything audrey lord, sister outsider, was really important go to of mine. I read a lot of marge piercy books, shes like scifi writer. Obviously i was introduced to Octavia Butler. I got to see octavio before she died here in los angeles. Shes from pasadena. Her last book she wrote fledgling she went to a local black bookstore to do her reading and i was so excited about meeting her. Octavia was Octavia Butler was like six feet tall and had a short crop. Shes actually really quiet, very deep voice, i remember her just sitting there ab everybody should read fledgling, the vampire story, vampires and racism and abshe is sitting there talking about how she was recluse. How she basically was a loner her whole life and sat in the library and read books. I remember being like, there are so many types of black women. And then months later she passed away. You excerpt some of these writers in the book, i appreciate that, theres toni morrison, allie baker, what, come on, theyre both powerful, im think about audrey, all of these incredible, baker, wells, all of these incredible black women who have done tremendous work for the liberation of black people and im always hearing people say, youve got to be brave like them, courageous like them and one thing i teach my students, courage is not something youre born with, it is something you practice. Im curious, knowing that courage is something that you practice, how do you respond to people who think youre fearless and a superwoman and got all the answers, the troop is going to lead us, youve all the answers prehow to respond to that. I literally do not and im working out just like you are, but i will say this, i am well practiced in problem solving because ive had to be, its not like its Something Like im going to be a Problem Solver grade when you grown up born black woman in particular you are forced to problem solve even beyond before you should be a Problem Solver. And even sometimes i think i wish other people wouldve help problem solve with me. So its very well practice, i think the practice is always healthy, i have had to learn in the last decade, i am 37 now so maybe since i was in my late 20s, i need help and getting help actually makes me better and makes my connections better. When i tried to do everything on my own then when i try to do everything on my own it may be a good product, it may be a good thing but it actually does not get me closer to the things that i want my connection and love and care and dignity. So really pushing myself to my instinct is to see a problem and fix it and im going to deal with this, i got this, dont worry about it, dont worry about it. Instead of being like actually, no, you need to work, this is the time to call your team, call your family members and i learned that from my mother, i watched my mom bring in 20 bags of groceries onto arms and thats because she had to do that for so long and now im like you dont need to do that and shes like im just used to it, that to me is very dangero dangerous, the things that we allow ourselves to get used to, not a judgment on us, it is not our fault but i always wonder if we were able to get used to being supportive and help, what would our lives look like if we were able to be practiced in connection and connectivity what would our lives look like especially as black women. We do live in a culture where we are told youre supposed to figure it out on your own, very much individualistic, if youre not figuring out on your own youre weak in some way or you have a deficit, were not taught to lean on, i love reading adrian brown because shes a writer is like no, community, collaboration, always collaborate, be vulnerable, collaborate, you should not. It all on your own, we were not meant to carry all on her own. So i love that, one thing that i love in your text, you discuss we give adrian marie brown, we you speak a lot about shame and guilt and i feel like especially as a black woman, clear black woman and growing up poor, there is a lot of shame and guilt that comes with that, im wondering, its never something that goes away, i dont think it is something that easily goes away but how do go with the shame and the guilt and everything that comes up with you. I dont push back, i witness, i observed, i think its really important that we become observers of our emotions, feelings, experiences, the more that you can observe even the part of shame and guilt is to not not wanting to look at it, not wanting to see it but the moment that you take time to observe the impact, everything that it is had on you and give space observing not just shame and joy not to shame and guilt but joy and love, we sometimes assume that we can fully feel loved and joy but sometimes theres so practice in shame and guilt that even when love and joy comes our way we cannot recognize it and so im a big Firm Believer of observing our feelings, our emotions, our behaviors giving them space so you can have more language around what is happening, i practice what is called generative foam onyx, many of us in their movement have been trained in it or have gone through that training and its really an observation of the body and everything were going through a final sweep i sleep ey eyeball twitches, im not taking enough water and if we just take a moment to observe into notice, we could have more language about our needs, our desires, what is going to work for us and i think about that, that is the individual level, imagine if we could collectively understand our needs and desires, i think thats why black lives matter was so profound for black people because it became a thing that we did not realize that we needed as a collective to galvanize around, the more that we can collectively understand our trauma, the more that we can collectively understand our resilience, we can collectively understand our needs, our desires and the closer we can get to freedom. Come on. [laughter] come on like you giving it language, i observed, i am done you all, we still have q a, okay fine. Thank you for saying that, i think that is why i love teaching history, not only studying history but also my own history and understated it, i kept reading this memoir and i was thinking how did she remember all of this, you had to observe, how did she observe all of this, that is just a question im throwing in there because i am just shocked. You will be shocked how much you remember as your probed and asked questions. I really sat and said lets start from the beginning and we were pretty much in conversation on a daily basis like at the crack of dawn and some of the stories it was because i was talking to get to the next story, a chapter on my middle school years called 12 where i talk about the first time i am arrested, that was not something i planned on putting in the book i was not even thinking about that but i was talking a lot to kind of explain the differences in the school that i went to, when i went to summer school, my homeschool, the homeschool my neighborhood and a cop came and arrested me and was like wait a second, what happened and i was like 0 yeah when i was 12 i got arrested at school and she was like okay that needs to go in the book, youve talked so much about your siblings and the boys in the neighborhood but you were also criminalized in the criminalization of black girls and we hold all the stories, we store them, they dont leave our bodies, their in there somewhere and when their unlocked, i think they create a lot of things, opportunity, sometimes too much for people who are survivors especially of Sexual Assault and violence, sometimes you lock away the memories for survival and safety and of those are unlocked without getting the support can really cause a lot of harm, i say that because im not romanticizing the memory that i have and what i unlocked, i very much go to therapy, i do therapy twice a week, i try my hardest to really take care of my Emotional Health even my own history with complex ptsd, given what ive grown up with and witnessed, this Book Building of this memoir did remind me that what happened to me and my family was really, really unacceptable and very disturbing incredibly traumatic and i will probably need to be, not in a judgmental wave and lifelong therapy because of it, i was just texting with my mom, do you want to go to therapy. I am very transparent, im in therapy hoping shall be like maybe ill do it to, we deserve healing from what is happened to us in what continues to happen, we deserve the time and space, my big demand on my last book to her i was saying in every conversation first of all i believe in reparation but i think there should be a whole section when we create our reparation impacted enter package on healing justice, every single black person in their family should have a designated who can support them up with them through the history of trauma that we have gone through to get us closer to being whole human beings, when youre traumatized, youre not a whole human being, your acting from your trauma place, we deserve to be fully realized human beings, i think reparations will get us that an active therapy, a lot of other things as well the active therapy as well. Thank you for bringing that into the space i was going to ask you about your healing process and how you been healing and you hit the nail on the head i have so many other questions, we have some questions coming in from the audience so im going to read them here to you, the first question, injustice anywhere is injustice anywhere and david celebrates the Small Victories in the global connections, how does the globe support your fight for justice. Oh my goodness, everywhere around the world black people are rising up alongside of us and for us. I have pretty much traveled to every continent and have met black people everywhere i go in there is a deep deep pride and black lives matter, both because what theyre witnessing black americans try to figure out but also because black lives matter give black people across the globe a sense of purpose in connection about their needs and desires, i am so proud of the work happening from australia to the United Kingdom to canada to south africa to haiti to brazil, there is so much amazing work happening with black people and has everything to do with the onset of black lives matter. Absolutely, the next question comes from someone in Washington State, what are the most important legislation states can put in place to change the system, the system is very broad youre gonna say that how you want. Sure i love this question, check out the breeds act, you go to breathe act. Org, this is federal legislation, the movement for black lives which is a coalition of 150 lakh lives organization the Global Network which is an organization i cofounded with my cofounders and im also the executive director were a part of the movement for black lives and we have launched federal regulation that were calling for congress to pass called the breathe act, it can also be repackaged as a state bill and local legislation so were really having people you can sign up and be community sponsored, the breathe act, we will also have breathe day which is the day that my book publishes on september 29 and its going to be a full day long conversation about the breathe act with different folks all be in conversation on the movement for black license to graham at 2 30 p. M. To talk about breathe day, its so beautiful to be able to launch the addition and launch breathe day at the same time, its beautiful a person from Washington State go to breathe act. Org and read the legislation its a moving legislation that i have ever read and i read lots of legislations, it is a comprehensive way to get us out of this disturbing white supremacist rut that we are in. My next question and moments like the ruling in Breonna Taylors case, how do you keep going, moments when youre really tired of injustice, how do you keep fighting, i want to add to this because there was a part in the book when you talk about your father and one of the most touching, you said he kept trying, he kept trying and that hit me so much, this question how do you keep fighting, what keeps you going. Im going to be my instagram post, this is exactly, this question, this is the answer to the question, some days i wake up very clear about whats next, what i should be doing and what i should be doing, other days i wake up afraid, worried, concerned, questioning if this country will ever see black folks as human, it is a really hard and challenging time, the world has changed so [bleep] much were just a month and a half out until our National Election and all i know is this, one, defend the police, too, vote trump out, three, support black woman, for, cultivate your joy, lets stay focused, even in the hardest and scariest of times, dont lose track of what youre fighting for because i promise we will eventually win. We have nothing to lose but artane, the next question there are not many places where black people can feel safe in this world, where you feel safest . I dont, i do not feel safe in this country and im trying to figure out and im trying to answer that question right now, is there a place that is more safe for me and my family, im literally in that question in this moment because the more and more i am in this work, this is going to sound funny to say it out loud, its like you are a fugitive, why did you stay here, what made you stay here, you are full on fugitive, youve a ton of our folks who left Freedom Fighters and this is it safe anymore, there is a ton of us who stayed and i always wonder why, i think thats a question that does not have a good answer right now, i dont feel safe is not safe for black people, one of the reasons why we have such a twirl reaction when one of us are killed is because black people are collected people so we feel i dont need to know jacob blake to feel him and feel his family, he is my family but also we know that could be one of us, that could easily be one of our family members, i received a text from a good friend of mine, to friends our best friend was killed by the police, somewhere in upstate california and as it gets closer and closer and closer, i say it all the time, thats what it feels like to be hunted, you dont ever know when you will be the prey and thats was very scary about this country, there is a relentlessness on how it hunts black people and how its always hunted black people, i think this place is not safe for the question becomes where is safety, what is safety, can we create it, what does it look like, these are ageold questions. Why they write, i am thinking about going to ghana and west africa or James Baldwin leaving for france, just trying to get out, im thinking about as soon as you been watching love crash, the episode where theyre being hunted by monsters, again language, hunted, where can you ever feel safe, i gotta say i feel safe with you right now if i get to hold on to safety i feel safe in this competition, i know many young people find safety in reading and books like yours, some kind of sense of solace from this world and you get to tune in to somebody who sees it and observes it and say ico youre not alone, that brings you to the next question i am wondering if Young Patrice could read this book today, what is one thing you want her to know or understand or take away. That you are exactly where youre supposed to be, all of your rage and love and laughter is perfect and i would hammer this book and say thank you for what you already offered in europe so much more to offer the world. Thank you. We are out of questions but is there anything that you want to leave us with as we move into the state and continue to fight for justice and liberation, what is one thing you want to leave us with. That we are in a very, very hard moment in history and i want you to feel the impact that the house on your spirit and on your body, you get to be scared, you get to be afraid, you get to cry in rage and hurt, i will now also remind you that we collectively the people we get to transform this place, we get to be the people who we imagined who we create and rebuild what this country can and should look like, we dont give our power up to white supremacists, we dont give our power up to neoliberal democrats who cant always leave us were relaxed, that we are the shape shifters, we always have been, we never waited for elected officials were appointed officials to help us be grounded in who we are so you get to make that decision and change it, it may not feel like it you might feel powerless but i promise you someone who grew up with very little power in group witnessing and watching so much hurt and pain around me, the moment i realized that i have power when i unite with other people, when i create more space for that power, i recognize that i can win and we can win in our Movement Works and organizing works, feel it all, i feel it all every day, i am a crier, i held back tears during this conversation, you are human being, feel that i dont agree when people are like dont worry, dont feel bad, keep pushing, feel all the grief and joy and resilience, it can exist all at once. Thank you for listening, i find myself saying that more and more, those two things can exist the same time, we can feel joy and grief and be here to be vulnerable with ourselves, i want to thank you, i dont have an official copy of the book, comes out next week but show it to the folks will more time, it is stunning, i love the colors, i just want to thank you, thank you so much for what you have given all of us, i know it is a privilege to honor and share this space with you and to keep going for young people especially but for all people who are vulnerable and liberation, black, brown, queer, trans, immigrant, undocumented, you write for all of us and thank you for giving us hope. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day, were gonna go try next programming right after this, please go to the website for the actual schedule but again thank you for joining us. 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