They Are Falling All Around Me written by Holly Near, performed by ancestor Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. She sang it at the celebration of life for Toni Cade Bambara at the Painted Bride Art Center on 12.17.95

¡Presente Nikki Giovanni! May the ancestors welcome her home.

youtu.be/AX3l2mrkP5U?...

Despite my deep devastation, I find comfort knowing that Toni Cade Bambara and Nikki Giovanni share the same ascension day.

They were linked in life and are now linked as ancestors

December 9, 1995 + December 9, 2024

If you haven’t seen the incredible, deeply moving, very insightful Emmy award-winning documentary film, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project by Michéle Stephenson & Joe Brewster, SEE IT❣️
youtu.be/F0xCXuMO7VI?...

Ms. Giovanni battled cancer twice before and was still giving readings and performances within the past month. She was 81 years old. She is survived by her wife, Virginia Fowler, her son Thomas, her granddaughter, Kai •and• all of us who were transformed by her spoken and written words.

Toni Cade Bambara’s Spirit, legacy, and written/cinematic words live always, always.

Ashé-O. Sadhū. Amen. Ameen Ya Rabbul Alameen.

“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?… Just so’s you’re sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you’re well.”

“Now here I am:
and there I am;
& all I am;
Free to be anywhere at all in the Universe.”
—The Salt Eaters, 1980

“If your house ain’t in order, you ain’t in order. It is so much easier to be out there than in here.”

“The revolution begins with the self, in the self.”
—The Black Woman, 1970

A deep bow of gratitude to you, my cherished sister-comrade-friend @dalitdiva.bsky.social
I am grateful to be on this journey with you and honored to write the epilogue to your powerFULL book, The Trauma of Caste