Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves – J. Drew Lanham

Emergence Magazine Podcast

Emergence Magazine

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Spirituality, Natural Sciences, Science

4.7 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Joy is our lives mattering, / Blackness respected.” Juneteenth is a day to celebrate and defend freedom, equity, and belonging for Black Americans. In this stirring reading of his poem “Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves,” poet, birder, and naturalist J. Drew Lanham grounds his vision of racial justice in quiet moments of awe among the more-than-human. Embracing radical acts of joy and creativity, he lifts up liberation, reparations, and deep connection to ancestors and the living world. Read this poem on our website. Sign up for our newsletter to hear more stories as they are released each week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Emergence Magazine's podcast.
0:04.5	I'm Emanuel Vaughn Lee, executive editor of Emergence Magazine,
0:09.1	located on the unseated ancestral lands of the Coast Mewalk people of present-day,
0:14.6	Marin County.
0:16.9	Each week, we feature a new interview, narrated essay, or story, exploring the threads connecting
0:23.6	ecology, culture, and spirituality.
0:29.6	This week, we bring you a piece by writer and birder J. Drew Lanham.
0:35.6	In this powerfully recited poem, Drew celebrates the radical act of joy
0:41.0	through lifting up liberation, reparations, justice, and deep connection to ancestors
0:47.4	and the living world. Joy is the justice we give ourselves.
1:02.8	It is Maya's caged bird sung free past the prison bars, holding spirits bound, without
1:10.3	due process, without just cause.
1:14.6	Joy is the steady run stream, rites sprung up through moss soft ground, water seeping sweet,
1:23.6	equality made clear from sea to shining sea north to south west to east joy is the truth crooked lies hammered straight whitewashed myths wiped away stone mountain jest stone rushmore no more give the Eagles their mountains back
1:51.0	Joy is the paradise we can claim right here right now
1:58.0	No vengeful God's craving prayer. No tent and tithes to pay. No repentance cover charge.
2:08.1	No dying required to get in. Joy is the sunrise, breaking through night's remains, bright shone new on a shell-racked
2:21.4	shore.
2:23.3	A fresh tide-scrubbed world redeems what was to is.
2:32.3	Joy is on Wimbril's wings, the wedge in fast flight, wandering curlews, curved beaks,
2:41.0	cries, stitching top of the world to bottom.
2:47.0	Joy is the soul stirred underneath the journey, gaze snagged on wonder, not knowing final destination.
	...

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