Her Eye Is on the Sparrow, Revised

Jul 24

This blog post looked a whole lot different 24 hours ago.

But in a burst of insomnia it changed.

I spent yesterday afternoon researching 1923 and the world my Grandma Ruth was born into in North Carolina. A year defined by insidious racism and segregation, the Rosewood massacre of 1923, and the beginnings of the Golden Age of the Harlem Renaissance — where Black art and expression would defy the master narratives of Black unworthiness.

I went to bed thinking about the viral video of Vice President Kamala Harris responding to the most recent attack on Black worthiness in Florida. I wondered: what and how will the young people in my life learn about the year of my Grams’ birth?

Legacy: the reflection of intentional decisions over time
Florida: returning to a legacy of dehumanizing Black bodies
SCOTUS’ overhaul of affirmative action: returning to a legacy of dehumanizing Black bodies

This post was supposed to be about my Grams turning 100 in May and the revelations I am receiving about stillness from her through her love for the hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.

And in someway, I guess it still is.

Known as Ruth the Truth in many family conversations nowadays, this blog post’s evolution represents the three anchors of her legacy: (1) community care, (2) speaking and shining a bright light on the truth, and (3) centering and nourishing the Black soul.

So, here it goes- “Her Eye is on the Sparrow, Revised.”

In still of revelations,

Gabrielle

Her Eye is on the Sparrow, Revised

It’s 2 am and I woke up with a fire in my gut to email my chosen family, friends, dreamers, and co-conspirators with a call to action: commit to one action you will repeat over the next 10 years to ensure Black brilliance is accurately taught, celebrated, and cared for.

Over the last seven months of 2023, the livelihoods and legacy of Black Americans continue to be under attack across institutions — from the Supreme Court to State Legislatures to the ballot box and more. And despite the 2020 calls to action and investment pledges to center racial justice, the world feels both resoundingly silent and loud right now. Silent in its calls to action (and follow through) from individuals, corporations, philanthropy and more to combat and fight these actions that put us on a trajectory to return to the Jim Crow Era. And loud in activity to step away from anything resembling a focus on, centering of, and investment in all things “DEI.”

Legacy - the reflection of intentional decisions over time

It’s now 2:30 am and my stomach is in knots: are we returning to the world my Grams was born into? A world that also held both truths? One that was silent in addressing the injustices of the Rosewood massacre of 1923? One that was loud in the celebrations of the Black soul as the Harlem Renaissance unfolded?

I hum my Grams’ favorite hymn, trying to get back to sleep:

Why should I feel discouraged
And why should the shadows, shadows come
But why, why, why should my heart, my heart feel lonely?
And long for heaven, heaven, home, yeah, yes
When, when Jesus, Jesus is my portion
A, a constant friend, constant friend is He
Oh, oh-oh, his eye is on, his eye is on the sparrow
Oh yes, I, I know He watches, oh, over me, yeah, hey
I sing (I sing)
I sing because (because)
I'm happy (happy)
Hallelujah
I sing (I sing)
I sing because (because)
I'm free, I'm free (free, free, free)
I know, I know His eye (His eye)
His eye is on (is on)
Is on the sparrow (sparrow)
Oh, yes, it is
I know (know)
I know (and I know)
He watches like the Lord over me
“His Eye Is on the Sparrow” by lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel

It’s now 3 am and I’m still awake, but I’m also clear: I need us to commit to intentionality, investment, rest (and repeat) if we are serious about our collective love for one another and our humanity.

Intentionality, Investment, Rest, Repeat

My chosen family, friends, dreamers, and co-conspirators I ask you to commit to one action you will repeat over the next 10 years to ensure Black brilliance is accurately taught, celebrated, and cared for.

Here’s how: intentionality, investment, rest (and repeat). We have the power to not return to the darkest parts of my Grams’ year of birth. We have the power only if we are intentional with our investments, time, and wellness.

Part 1: Intentionality

After nearly three years of asking Black women leaders across the country to embrace legacy planning, I continue to be extremely clear that our calendars and bank accounts are the truth tellers of our legacies.* What do your calendars and bank accounts say right now about the legacy you’re leaving to ensure Black brilliance is accurately taught, celebrated, and cared for?

We cannot achieve what we cannot see. The first step in building a legacy of commitment to Black brilliance is intentionally envisioning it. So, what do you see 65 years from now when we all are at least the age of Grandma Ruth?

I know that can feel far away and potentially hard to see. Here’s a set of questions to help you get to a level of intentionality about the world you envision 65 years from now:

For the young people in your life right now: They might be your kids, your nieces or nephews, your friends’ kids — what do you want your little people to know about Black brilliance? How do you want them to learn and experience Black brilliance? What values do you want to anchor that experience? Who do you see as their village of educators?
Look at your answers: What’s the one thing you want to do right now to ensure they see and experience this vision?
Ask those same questions for your young people 20 years from now. Then repeat for 30 years from now.
Let’s turn to 40 years from now, when today’s young people may have young people of their own: What do you want their kids — your grandkids— to know about Black brilliance?
Look again at your answers: What patterns do you notice?
Open your calendar and bank account: Identify one distraction not in service of this vision to accurately teach, celebrate, and care for Black brilliance. Commit to eliminating the distraction.

Part 2: Investment

How we spend our time — what we read, re-post, where we volunteer, the conversations we have, the meetings we take, and more — are a reflection of our legacy. How we spend our dollars — on the books we buy, the experiences we curate for ourselves and families, the restaurants we support, and more — are a reflection of our legacy.

One of the failures of the 2020 pledges were the one time acts of investment. We must hold one another accountable for sustained, intentional investments in pursuit of racial justice. We are solving for a deeply entrenched, centuries-long legacy of racism and dehumanization. Recurring and intentional investment of time and dollars is required. Not allowing the clocks to turn back requires we align our bank accounts and calendars consistently over multiple generations.

Look back at your answers to part 1: What’s the one thing you want to do right now to ensure your young people today and 65 years from now see and experience your vision of how Black brilliance is accurately taught, celebrated, and cared for?

Here’s my unapologetic shortlist of how you can invest your time and capital consistently for the next decade.

Make recurring, annual investments in organizations accurately teaching, celebrating, and caring for Black brilliance:

Reconstruction: “Reconstruction was created to show our kids that they are descendants of powerful, creative, and resilient ancestors whose contributions permeate every aspect of life across the globe; and that they too are called to contribute to this rich legacy. It's the way we were taught as children. It's the way we teach our children.”
Center for Black Educator Development: “We know the practice of education itself must be rethought and unshackled via: revolutionary Black educators teaching in every school throughout the country; revolutionary teaching practices that unleash the power of diverse cultural insights and anti-discriminatory mindsets; revolutionary policies that liberate us from constraints, real and imagined.”
The Highland Project: “Everything begins and ends with a sustained Black woman leader. To spark multigenerational change, we are reimagining what it means to invest in Black women. We invest $100K in the legacy vision of each Highland Leader. A legacy vision is a set of structural solutions centering abundance and personal sustainability that yield multi-generational wealth in the communities they live in and serve.”
Black Feminist Fund: “Black feminists transform societies, systems, cultures and economies. The time is now to support the power of Black feminist movements.”
Camelback Ventures: “Genius is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. We aim to create a more diverse social innovation ecosystem that leverages the genius of all people.”
Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium: “Southern Black Girls has become a disruptor in grant-making and is positioned as a catalyst to fundraise and provide greater resources toward underfunded organizations that, intentionally, support and empower Black girls and women in the South.”

Celebrate Black Brilliance: As my dear sister friend, mentor, and coach Shawna Wells always says — “Black brilliance is all around us” and we all have a responsibility to make sure it isn’t hiding as a lone book on a shelf, but taking up abundant space in our homes. Check out some of my favorite partners to celebrate with.

B is for Black Brilliance
Exponentia Prime
NiLu Harlem
Curated businesses and books by the B is for Black Brilliance fam

Invest time in advocating for the value and necessity of diversity: SCOTUS’s reversal of affirmative action impacts our lives beyond our interactions with a college admissions process. In the words of my friend Dr. Stella Safo, “just as many of us raised our voices and demanded protections from our elected representatives after the legal right to abortion was struck down, we can do the same for communities that have been left behind and had the gates closed on them.” Here are four ways you can invest your time right now.

Part 3: Rest

I’ve been asked often over the last five years as we celebrated my Gram’s good health at age 95, 96, 97 and now 100: what’s her secret? How did she do it? What have you learned from her? Particularly since my father’s passing, I’ve tried hard to slow up my journey with my Grandma and the way we engage one another. My efforts seek to bend time with her, listening intensely to what is being said — and left unsaid by her. Seeking to understand as the days continue in her lifespan what was and still is keeping her legacy nourished, rooted, and constantly unfolding.

My earliest memories of my Grams are off of the end of Northern Parkway, where Liberty Road meets 83. There you will find Peerless Avenue. And just a few doors down onto the block, you’re find a traditional brick Baltimore row home with a white swinging glider out front. For years, I remember finding my Grandma Ruth sitting there as we arrived for daycare, holidays, and afternoons. Sometimes there would be a neighbor or two there with her. Sometimes a cat would come visit and she’d mutter as she shooed it off: “I feel bad for it — it can’t talk!” But most often she was just sitting there quietly, listening to the wind glide through the trees and the sparrows chirp. She no longer lives on Peerless Avenue, but you can often find her in a similar practice at my Aunt’s house sitting by her bedroom window - watching house finches and sparrows frolic through the backyard. No matter the home, her hum of familiar verses can be heard from His Eye Is on the Sparrow.

I’ve been thinking about this song a lot since her 100th birthday and the start of summer. Perhaps because her milestone was on my mind I’ve been noticing an abundance of sparrows on my walks through the Ramble. They are plentiful, chirpy and resourceful — adjusting to the heat by burrowing into and resting in the sand and dirt. Their bird song brings comfort and clarity as I take evening walks now at the end of blistering hot days.

In the early hours of this morning, the song held me. And then it occurred to me: my Gram’s love for sparrows represents the necessity of resting, nourishing, and celebrating the Black soul. The origin of the song was meant to be a reminder to not fear death or torture, because even though the body can be destroyed, the soul cannot. In her book, Rest is Resistance, author Tricia Hersey frames our souls as our center and “an invisible, clear, quiet force that’s required for living. Rest places soul care at the center of our wellness and liberation.”

Committing to leaving a legacy of Black brilliance being accurately taught, celebrated, and cared for will require a relentless prioritization of rest and honoring the Black soul. Yes, intentionality is needed. Yes, investment is needed. And we not only must protect our spirits — we must rest in order to dream and live into the fullness of the legacy we seek to leave of Black brilliance. Here are a few techniques recommended by Hersey to step into the portal of resting:

“Cultivate deep community that is not allowed to post online. Find and create spaces of intimacy, accountability, and vulnerability.”
“Be subversive like my Ancestors and the Underground Railroad, like my Ancestors during the Great Migration. Invent a space of joy, freedom, and rest right now. Right in front of you. Lay down.”
“Wander until you get lost. Be like the maroons. Decide you will never be enslaved. You are not on the run since you don’t belong to the systems. There is nothing to run from.”
“Rest by slowing down. Rest in secret. Rest out in the open. Get off these phones. Write more handwritten letters. Document your existence in real time offline.”
“Barter and participate in mutual aid, make community care your biggest goal.”
“Rest as if your life depends on it, no matter what, regardless. This is how we will thrive.”

For supports on investing in your soul and rest:

Buy: Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Follow, read, and practice with: Octavia Raheem and Dr. Gail Parker
Download and breathe: Exhale

Part 4: Repeat

Building a legacy of Black brilliance is a lifestyle. Not a single action in isolation. In fact, it will take all of us diligently repeating: intentionality, investment, and rest.

“It takes three hundred repetitions for muscle memory and three thousand repetitions for embodiment. What do you need to practice?” - adrianne maree brown

Take note of where you’re getting more clear on the legacy of Black brilliance you’re cultivating. Iterate. Reinvest. Rest. Repeat.

The Time is Now

Legacy: the reflection of intentional decisions over time
Revelations: the divine truth

My chosen family, friends, dreamers, and co-conspirators, what will be the divine truths about our legacies of Black brilliance?

Will you join me in committing today to one action you will repeat over the next 10 years to ensure Black brilliance is accurately taught, celebrated, and cared for? Email, text or call me. Let’s hold each other accountable, let’s love on one another, let’s step into the power of Black brilliance together.