We Speak Your Names: A Celebration by Pearl Cleage Read Free Book Online Page B

lives.
    We are here to speak your names because we have enough sense to know that we did not spring full blown from the forehead of Zeus,
    or arrive on the scene like Topsy our sister once removed, who somehow just growed.
    We know that we are walking in footprints made deep by the confident strides
    of women who parted the air before them like the forces of nature that you are.
    We are here to speak your names because you taught us that the search is always for the truth
    and that when people show us who they are, we should believe them.
    We are here because you taught us that sisterspeak can continue to be our native tongue,
    no matter how many languages we learn as we move about as citizens of the world
    and of the ever-evolving universe.
    We are here to speak your names because of the way you made for us. Because of the prayers you prayed for us. We are the ones you conjured up, hoping we would have strength enough,
    and discipline enough, and talent enough, and nerve enough
    to step into the light when it turned in our direction, and just smile awhile.
    We are the ones you hoped would make you proud
    because all of our hard work makes all of yours part of something better, truer, deeper.
    Something that lights the way ahead like a lamp unto our feet,
    as steady as the unforgettable beat of our collective heart.
    We speak your names.
We speak your names.
    Dr. Maya Angelou
Shirley Caesar
Diahann Carroll
Elizabeth Catlett
Ruby Dee
Katherine Dunham
    We speak your names.
We speak your names.
    You could not have known how closely we watched your every move.
    How we hung on your every word.
    How eagerly we ran to sit cross-legged in front of the television
    whenever you were on Ed Sullivan or Soul Train or 60 Minutes.
    How patiently we saved our money to buy that record, or that theatre ticket,
    or that museum membership, or that magazine subscription
    that would allow us to see you doing what nobody else had ever done before,
    in just that way, on every front, all at the same time.
    We were so proud of you, it made us walk taller, smile wider, dream bigger.
    You could not have been in each of our little black girl bedrooms,
    watching us hold that make-pretend microphone as we lip-synched your latest hit when dinner was ready downstairs,
    or curled up under the covers with your new book when we had math homework to do,
    or prayed for your safety when our parents told us you were somewhere
    fighting for our freedom, and it was dangerous work.
    It is always dangerous work, but the trade-off is unacceptable.
    From you we learned that freedom is non-negotiable.
    You could not have known that your collective example
    of the limitless possibilities that were open to us is what allowed us to look our mothers in the eye and say:
    Mama, I want to be a singer.
    Mama, I want to be an actress.
    Mama, I want to be a dancer, or a sculptor, or a lawyer, or a leader,
    Or a world-changing force for good, loose in the world, and whirling. …
    And even when she rolled her eyes and shook her head
    and pronounced us more our father's child than we had ever been hers,
    she knew you had planted those ideas in our heads, and she thanked you for letting us see
    that we could be a part of something better, truer, deeper.
    We speak your names.
We speak your names.
    Roberta Flack
Aretha Franklin
Nikki Giovanni
Dr. Dorothy Height
Lena Horne
Coretta Scott King
    We speak your names.
We speak your names.
    Because we are sensual women,
    born of sensual women,
    who are born of sensual women,
    we celebrate your passion.
    You taught us that the mysteries of true love are sometimes harder to unravel
    than all the others we attempt to understand, but that when we are lucky enough to find that thread,
    the rewards are worth everything,
    because the time to have enough of love is never.
    Because we have had our hearts broken, we know your tears
    and have felt the same fears of never finding one who can share our light
    without getting lost in it, or