{"id":4830,"date":"2024-12-01T18:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T22:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=4830"},"modified":"2024-12-01T18:00:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T22:00:21","slug":"2024-justiceforsonyamassey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/poetry-archive\/2024-justiceforsonyamassey\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 #JusticeForSonyaMassey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The Art of Survival vs The Art of Passion 3, Baez<\/p><\/div>\n

#JusticeForSonyaMassey<\/strong><\/h1>\n

On July 6, a Black woman in Springfield, Illinois\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

heard some noise around her house,<\/span><\/p>\n

sounds that gave her cause for concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seeking peace, she called police to determine<\/span><\/p>\n

if a person was prowling on her property.<\/span><\/p>\n

A sheriff\u2019s deputy and his colleague arrived on the scene,<\/span><\/p>\n

pulling up to her address to address her needs,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

or so it seemed.<\/span><\/p>\n

She spoke to both officers outside in the beginning,<\/span><\/p>\n

let them in, and walked to a pot on the stove in her kitchen.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deputy expressed feeling threatened by this decision,<\/span><\/p>\n

but there was no warrant to warrant his suspicion.<\/span><\/p>\n

She then said \u201cI rebuke you in the name of Jesus\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

in response to him assuming she had a violent mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things escalated quick as hand moved to hip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly, explicit expletives explode from his lips.<\/span><\/p>\n

He barked orders with force that was neither appropriate nor proper.<\/span><\/p>\n

She stopped her speech and dropped to her knees, but still, the cop shot her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Killed in cold blood, the warmth left her body over a pot of hot water.<\/span><\/p>\n

We lost one woman, who was both a mom and a daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

On TV, we see the grief of her kids and the sobs of her father.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you see where trusting that crooked cop got her?<\/span><\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t place that label on all first responders.<\/span><\/p>\n

I just don\u2019t see why she had to die a martyr.<\/span><\/p>\n

If these indecent executions have taught me anything,<\/span><\/p>\n

it\u2019s that unarmed only sounds like unharmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast-forward one week to July 13 of this year:<\/span><\/p>\n

When a failed assassination wounded an ex-president\u2019s ear,<\/span><\/p>\n

people lent him theirs to hear his response to his crisis<\/span><\/p>\n

and began proclaiming his name in public and private.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet when a sister gets slain over Jesus\u2019s name,<\/span><\/p>\n

y\u2019all either victim-blame or y\u2019all are quiet!<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re offered a justification for the crime, y\u2019all buy it,<\/span><\/p>\n

and that\u2019s why this black brother refuses to be silent.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the two lips that shout in outrage from this tragedy<\/span><\/p>\n

are the same tulips I use to give flowers to Her Majesty.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019ll say \u201cRest in peace\u201d to honor this queen\u2019s passing,<\/span><\/p>\n

and in the same breath, proclaim \u201cJustice for Sonya Massey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Youngblood<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kendryk Youngblood is a fusion of spoken word artist and page poet. He is based in Houston, Texas. His YouTube Channel “Youngblood Poetry” has over 25 thousand subscribers and over 3 million total views. He is a Poet Life brand ambassador and a former member of University of Houston’s Poetry Slam team, UH Coogslam, which won 4th place in the Collegiate Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) in April of 2019.\u00a0 Some of Kendryk\u2019s written work has been published in Shards magazine, Defunkt magazine, and Poet’s Choice. He is a leader for the Christian creative organization known as Urban Hymnal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

JD Baez is a visual artist from Brooklyn whose work embodies the dualities of passion and resilience while connecting us all through the absence of words and noise. Married five years ago, JD adopted his wife\u2019s four children, and together, they now have six kids. JD\u2019s art is deeply influenced by his life experiences, from the early challenges he faced to his journey and dedication as a husband and father. His work has become a powerful narrative of shared human experiences, often focused on themes of family, love, and the perseverance in humanity, drawing viewers into narratives that reflect our collective lives. With a commitment to authenticity, he invites audiences to see beyond the canvas, connecting through emotions that feel as familiar as their own.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#JusticeForSonyaMassey On July 6, a Black woman in Springfield, Illinois\u00a0 heard some noise around her house, sounds that gave her cause for concern. Seeking peace, she called police to determine Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7305,"featured_media":0,"parent":1261,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5363,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4830\/revisions\/5363"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}