Pressure
by Alicia K. Harris
YouTube Music Video, 2020
Pressure, Alicia K. Harris, music video, 2020
My intention for Koffee’s music video “Pressure” was to make the viewer see our ABSENCE. We are - simultaneously - hyper visible (and then targeted), but also invisible in that there is rarely justice for our deaths. The colour red is also used to symbolize this dichotomy, externalizing both LOVE and ANGER.
Breonna should still be here. Ahmaud should still be here. Travyon should still be here. Philando should still be here. George should still be here. We should all still be here. I chose to show empty spaces representing how they were taken from us - to show how regular spaces become threatening - when you are Black. Because you are Black.
To contrast the isolation and emptiness of the other scenes, protest footage of people flooding the streets to fight for justice shows we are not alone in this fight. I chose to end with “George” in the sky. Because I am hopeful. I believe in change and I believe in Love. I believe our Love and Greatness is stronger than anything formed against us.
“I’m so worried about us all.”
By Elizabeth Mudenyo
"I’m so worried about us all.”*
I’m worried about us too.
we are here too much
we are here to be with
—even if it means
our hearts
break on loop and
we never really come up for air
and you know what they say
about us and water
and you know what they did
about us and water
we know
remember
the present
the knot still tight
I’m worried about the ones we lose
deaths not ascribed to this war
the minds come undone, gone
the ones gone, by their own hands
(like Nigel Shelby, 15)
the names,
the chosen ones,
the identities unsung
don’t seem to ring as long
like Tony McDade, 38
like Nina Pop, 28
like Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears, 33
like Tatiana Hall, 22
we’ll have to chorus won’t we?
echo our exhaustion down streets
running on empty
they can't use the word tired
they can't use angry either
they don’t have the rage
the fear so close it is familial
we kin, take each other
like breathing portraits
here Black alive and still
alive and still alive.
*Tweeted by Ashley C. Ford on August 26, 2020
Alicia K. Harris is a filmmaker from Scarborough, ON. Her latest short film, PICK won Best Live Action Short at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards. Alicia is dedicated to sharing the unique stories of Black women and the underrepresented. View her work: www.aliciakharris.com
Elizabeth Mudenyo is a poet, artist, and arts manager based in Toronto, Canada. She was a fellow of the 2018 Poetry Incubator in Chicago, and a participant of the 2020 Hurston/Wright Poetry Weekend with Danez Smith. Her first poetry chapbook, With Both Hands, is available through Anstruther Press. View her work at www.elizabethmudenyo.com