with thanks to Nikki Giovanni
The streets August, 2020
summer air thick with smoke and tear gas
screams and shouts
of protesters and police
armored vehicles
tear-gas and pepper spray in front,
target of bottles and fireworks from behind,
still Portia Bennett-Bey kneels
a Black Lives Matter sign
held high over her head
The church September, 2020
she speaks to the candidate
I am just going to be honest
and puts aside words she is given
You need to know the truth
and those gathered hear about
growing up Black in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
I'm part of this truth
and knew it was the right time
for speaking it
He needed to know more
of what's in our hearts,
she said after every one left
The honor
from TIME magazine Guardian of the Year
beside Assa Traore and racial justice organizers,
recognition in a year filled with death threats
for her activism,
this life a blessing and a curse, she said,
The world is seeing the change.
This pushes me to go harder
and the portrait December 20, 2020
a quilted artwork of cotton and silk,
wool and velvet its background
the hues of pumpkin, orange and bittersweet,
bright blue birds from a fabric known as
Speed Bird moving across our view,
signifying change and prosperity
transition and freedom,
the birds placed above, below and beside
Bennett-Bey who is lookingforward,
looking and thinking ahead,
said the artist Bisa Butler
wrapping her subject's shoulders
in gold fabric with an accent of black stars,
her head in a length of royal blue,
intricate swirls forming a regal coronet,
worn as a queen might wear a crown,
drawing onlookers to look up
to see her determination
that truth the artist saw
in the woman standing before us all
Judge’s Comments:
This poem uses sharp visual and auditory detail to register the important role a single individual can play in a time of revelation and change. The poet begins with a wide-angle view of chaotic protests in the streets, narrows it down to a specific town in Wisconsin where a woman named Porche Bennett-Bey speaks out the Truth when it's a "good time for the truth." She is then honored by TIME magazine. The surprising and wonderful thing is how Bennett-Bey's strength and determination inspire the creation of two beautiful portraits (the quilted artwork itself and the poem's description of the portrait) of a truth-teller.