BOOKLESS WORLDS OF OUR OWN MAKING
to the Congolese black boys and girls who die to make our laptops and smartphones serviceable
to those who defended “Black Boy” by Richard Wright against those who wished to “extract” the book from Long Island Eastport School curriculum under the pretext that it was “obsolete” (August 2025)
too often
those who have rites
to honor and defend our trees
are smiled at
or mocked
if not harassed and condemned
Tortuguita
was even shot
will a time come
when we will be treated
with the same arrogant looks
and criminalized
when we come to the rescue
of our ancestors’ paper books?
the same life-giving trees
where the strange fruit of our fathers
hung
gave us the sap-veined wood
that became the pages
we are now told
are obsolete
even if they
are the bearers
of a masterpiece
but the very computers
that offer up
the moveable feast
of the e books and Kindle
replacing the venerable volumes we touch
and annotate –
these laptops
and our smartphones
are only assembled
thanks to the death of black boys
slave-mining the copper, cobalt
and coltan
that make the sleight of internet
possible in the first place
the other day
in Katanga where Lumumba was tortured
and assassinated,
Kalando Mine
crashed
over the bodies of impoverished kids
digging in the name
of the impossible dream
of eating a next meal
to usher in the post-literate age
mere children are sacrificed
far away
out of sight
during bloody extractivist wars
in bookless worlds
of our own making
there are expendable
booklorn black boys
everywhere we look
(c) Julia Wright July 21, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
THE REVOLUTION IS ALREADY HERE – a poem to George Jackson
Fascism is already here
George Jackson’s
words
echo
more prescient than ever
down the years
these words uttered
three generations ago
are the measure
of our inaction
through time
we had seventy-five
Black Augusts
to study
to assess
to plan
to Q and A
but today
the time has come
to leave the trenches
and act
so that
in the spirit of George Jackson
our children will say
the Revolution is already here
(c) Julia Wright July 25, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
UPON HEARING OF JOHANNA FERNANDEZ’ TRANSITION – a few words of tribute
To Johanna with love, may you rest in Peace and Power
there is no way
we will let
your unwavering flame go out –
a flame you passed on
to us
a flame we will keep
alive
in a world shunning
books as weapons
you left us
a book that is
both love and spear
on a patriarchal Left
still shunning women
as leaders
you became
a leader
teaching us
not to bow to abuse
sexism or fear
as a woman warrior
you obtained
damning files on the New York police
nobody could get released
you wrote
you taught
you marched with us
you carried Mumia’s words
to the encampments
for Gaza
you hosted the international front
because
your spirit was always strong
even when
your flesh had begun to falter
you went to the UN
and obtained
for Mumia
the amicus curiae
Judge Lucretia Clemons
tossed away
above all
you loved Mumia
and moved mountains
so that his words and manuscripts
would become
the university archives
generations to come
would get to touch
Johanna
today
the whole abolitionist movement
will light candles for you
from the Young Lords
to the Panthers
to all those helping to free
our political prisoners –
so many candles
that their light
reaching Mumia
will fill his eyes
with the unflickering
love not phear
death will never blow out
(c) Julia Wright July 31, 2026. All Rights Reserved to donations for a wake for our sister Johanna Fernandez.
