Breathe in, breathe out once
Again. Know that I am safe?
What about our sons?
~ Jen, Mom, N. Cambridge
Please don’t hurt me now
Because of my skin color
Let me live my life
~
Gus, Peabody School Student, Cambridge
In the first weeks of January we – the Past Poet Populist of
Cambridge, Jean Dany Joachim, and I set out across the city in the hopes of
sparking conversations about race, about justice, and about equality. We
challenged people to condense their thoughts, feelings, questions and ideas
into three lines of text, seventeen syllables.
Brevity came from having too much to say. Back in November,
after the non-indictment in Ferguson and then the non-indictment in Staten
Island, Jean Dany had begun writing haikus.
Haiku after haiku after haiku, flowing in streams of syllables. As he
described, “I suppose it is the appropriate poetry form to help me refrain
myself from talking too fast, spitting out sadness, fear, rage, or frustration,
as well as keeping my dignity as a human being.” He encouraged friends,
colleagues, community members, to join him.
And this is where our idea took shape.
Tough conversations
But they are necessary
To have together.
~ Anonymous
We conceived of a project – The Many Voices Project - that would invite voices from all across
Cambridge: From North Cambridge to Kendall and every neighborhood in
between. Our goal was to create a space
to listen, to create the time and the room for conversation.
For me it was a way to take action. At school we read about the non-indictments,
discussed the protests, participated in die-ins. But I felt removed. So much of this year is about preparing for
the future and for future action. But
here was a place to act now.
Over those opening weeks of the new year we held poetry
workshops across Cambridge. We sat down
with elders in community homes and senior centers. We lead workshops in school classrooms and
neighborhood community centers. One
late, windy evening we attended an open-mic night and, in between beat-boxing
and spoken word we made our pitch. On Cambridge’s MLK Day of Service we invited
volunteers – in between making valentines for shut-in elders and toiletry kits
for homeless teens – to speak out in seventeen syllables.
In twenty-fifteen
May we have less violence
Start with your neighbor
~
Will
The response was overwhelming, as was the honesty. In three weeks, more than two hundred people
had added their voice. A cacophony of
fears, hopes, dreams, questions, anger, confusion, worries, declarations.
All of these voices, all of these haikus, we gathered into a
chapbook. With a grant from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education
we printed and bound over a thousand copies and drove out into the city again –
this time to share the books with libraries, schools, community centers,
religious centers, senior centers, neighborhood house, youth programs and city
offices.
It is our hope that upon reading, people all across the city
will strike up conversations, or pick up conversations that were set
aside. The process is ongoing.
Dear daughter of mine
I look into this lost world
And fear for your future
~JS, Thinker, Mid-Cambridge
As a white person
Wondering how to engage
Talk to me soon. Please.
~ Carol, Retired teacher, Inman Square
Once more must we lift
Our voices in the name of
Freedom and justice
~ Daniel, Son and Brother, West Cambridge
My America
Black, White, rich, poor citizens
In full harmony
~Jean Dany, Dad, Cambridge
You can read more Cambridge voices at our website:
manyvoicescambridge.wix.com/manyvoices#!city-voices/c1sxh