{"id":41,"date":"2020-10-06T14:40:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T18:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/?p=41"},"modified":"2020-11-06T13:38:58","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T18:38:58","slug":"artist-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/artist-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriella G. \u201916"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-172\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/610\/2020\/10\/Breonna-Taylor-was-26-3x2.jpg\" alt=\"A head with an Afro on a pillow\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/610\/2020\/10\/Breonna-Taylor-was-26-3x2.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/610\/2020\/10\/Breonna-Taylor-was-26-3x2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/610\/2020\/10\/Breonna-Taylor-was-26-3x2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Breonna Taylor was 26<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Breonna Taylor was 26 years old<br \/>\nWhen police riddled bullets<br \/>\nFilled with the sinister poison of prejudice<br \/>\nInto her body<br \/>\nAnd robbed her of life.<br \/>\nI am 26.<br \/>\nLike Breonna I am a Black woman<br \/>\nBreonna had goals and dreams for the future<br \/>\nI have goals and dreams for the future<br \/>\nBreonna touched many lives<br \/>\nAnd continues to remind us every day, every hour, every minute, every second<br \/>\nEvery Millisecond<br \/>\nTo rouse us to keep fighting for widespread recognition that<br \/>\nAll Lives \u2260 Matter until Black Lives = Matter<br \/>\nBreonna was a 26 year old Black woman<br \/>\nWhen police killed her<br \/>\nI was 26<br \/>\nWhen I heard of her murder<br \/>\nBreonna was 26.<br \/>\nI am 26.<br \/>\nThe cops that night saw her as<br \/>\nCriminal, dangerous, a threat<br \/>\nThe prejudice that poisoned their consciousness<br \/>\nEclipsed their potential to see her humanity<br \/>\nHer life as a Black person, a Black woman, a medical worker, a human being<br \/>\nLiving her everyday life.<br \/>\nWhen I pray to the Gohonzon<br \/>\nEach Nam-myoho-renge-kyo rushes from my tongue<br \/>\nLike a raging river of pain<br \/>\nAnguish<br \/>\nSorrow<br \/>\n401 brutal bitter years of generational trauma<br \/>\nEach Nam-myoho-renge-kyo permeates the<br \/>\nLife of Breonna<br \/>\nMyo= death and ho = life<br \/>\nMyoho= oneness of life and death<br \/>\nBreonna was a Buddha during a life cut all too short<br \/>\nBy a violent blatant disrespect for the inherent dignity of Black life<br \/>\nBlack joy<br \/>\nBlack pain<br \/>\nBlack beauty<br \/>\nBlackness<br \/>\nBullets extinguished her body but they could do nothing<br \/>\nAbsolutely nothing<br \/>\nTo extinguish the vibrant life force<br \/>\nThe energy of her Buddhahood<br \/>\nOf the limitless courage, wisdom and compassion<br \/>\nThat she possessed<br \/>\nand continues to eternally possess<br \/>\nfrom time without beginning<br \/>\nWith each pulse of Nam<br \/>\nMyo<br \/>\nHo<br \/>\nRen<br \/>\nGe<br \/>\nKyo<br \/>\nBreonna and I have a dialogue with one another<br \/>\nAbout our day to day lives, our hopes, our goals, our dreams<br \/>\nWe share laughter<br \/>\nTo celebrate Black joy.<br \/>\nAnd we shed shared tears<br \/>\nTo mourn Black pain.<br \/>\nI never met Breonna<br \/>\nAnd she never met me.<br \/>\nShe and I have our own individual narratives.<br \/>\nBut our destinies as young, Black beautiful Bodhisattvas<br \/>\nOf this world<br \/>\nShe and I, shimmering treasure towers of boundless eternal potential<br \/>\nOur shared mission as the Dragon King\u2019s daughters<br \/>\nWho help others realize that they too are Buddhas endowed with abundant wisdom, courage<br \/>\nand compassion<br \/>\nWho help others realize they have an important mission to speak out and fight for justice<br \/>\nClaw, tear, gnaw and uproot the nasty bitter root of suffering, pain, and trauma<br \/>\nThat has grown for far too many<br \/>\ntoo many<br \/>\ntoo many<br \/>\nYears.<br \/>\nBreonna and I<br \/>\nOur eternal bond is what keeps us connected.<br \/>\nBreonna lives on in my heart<br \/>\nAs my One Youth to give me Infinite Hope.<br \/>\nBreonna was 26.<br \/>\nI am 26.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Artist Statement<\/strong>: I wrote this poem on Sunday, August 30, 2020 after reading an article on the murder of Breonna Taylor that had come out that morning in the paper. This poem is dedicated to Breonna Taylor and so many other Black lives lost this year and in previous years to police brutality, and to everyone in the fight for racial justice through past, present and future.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container https:\/\/youtu.be\/mUhiHebu0ic\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gabriella G. \u201916  Breonna Taylor was 26\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mUhiHebu0ic?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI wrote this poem on Sunday, August 30, 2020 after reading an article on the murder of Breonna Taylor that had come out that morning in the paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1545,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/610\/2020\/10\/Breonna-Taylor-was-26-3x2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1545"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/cromwell-day-art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}