I Don't Want To Sleep Before Wishing Breonna Taylor Happy Birthday

Thanks to my sis Aunjanue Ellis for sharing this gorgeous video with me. The Black People’s “Happy Birthday” for #BreonnaTaylor. Sounds beautiful. I know she hears it. May we not have to sing in absence of our sisters and brothers. But in their presence. Living fully + joyfully. pic.twitter.com/cDniDb4Ibc

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) June 6, 2020

 

VIEW FROM ABOVE: Easily the largest group of #BlackLivesMatter demonstrators yet in Portland, Maine tonight. #NEWSCENTERmaine pic.twitter.com/YvrwOYQoJj

— Zach Blanchard (@ZachBlanchard) June 6, 2020

 

It’s nearly 10 p.m. in Louisville and the birthday party for #BreonnaTaylor continues. pic.twitter.com/PkYyT3zRD4

— Mandy McLaren (@mandy_mclaren) June 6, 2020

 I could go on.

 It's 4:10 in Britain on the night of what would have been Breonna Taylor's twenty-seventh birthday, and it looks like a hell of a party. And sure, I haven't wanted this blog to be the news because as I said wayyyyyyy back, when Cameron became Prime Minister and I made a gif of Brian Haw that no longer loads, "who wants to be the news?" but maybe that's changing. Again. As long as there's new hope I'll post hope, but I have little to report because I'm still staying in, apart from the night walks, but tonight as I walked to Portabello Road and back, what life I saw on the streets bore both an absence of fear and an absence of tutting. I stopped missing South London, although that said this is a new walk for me, so maybe it was always like this before the isolation. I also want to share this by James McMaster before I sleep: "You’ll want to know what happened last night around the capitol building of the country’s most segregated state..." and he's right, because it was exactly what I wanted to read...

 "I saw so much pent up joy released. I saw young people meet new people, entering into new friendships and flirtations founded in the possibility of a better world... It was the world as it could be, a rehearsal for the world we’re all fighting for. It was an autonomous zone, a racial rapprochement on black terms... All of this was unthinkable just a week ago..." but I really recommend reading it all.
 And I'm glad I took a break from the Shakespeare in time for this.
 Shakespeare's a great critic of systems, but absolutely no believer in change, even if he secretly desired it. Both his tragedies and comedies depend upon that hopelessness but I don't blame him for keeping those desires a secret, even from himself, there were on heads on spikes a stone's throw from his theatre. I might give it another week though.
 And I'm less worried about civil war than I was. But I might still post about it. Oh and the Lindsey Graham thing is fun too! This has been the news.
 I hope you're all doing tremendously. Stay safe.