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Inspired by the Mattapan Neighborhood Assembly, and Executive Director Nia Evans' wish for a new holiday titled Everyday Democracy Day, Editorial Manager Alula Hunsen explores the possibilities inherent in a daily, mundane, robust democracy that we can work towards.
Skip to the thrum of the rhythm circle on your doorstep,
Guide your eyes across the way as you and yours schlep
to the sunlit strip on your corner,
a stone’s throw from the tree-lined concourse
and a few heartbeats from concrete
Witness:
Bikes loop as parents scoop their young from schools that have flipped upside down,
The students run the classroom aground and answer essential questions like
How do I share gratitude?
What futures can our presence will into time?
Teach essential skills like,
Exploring your spiritual purpose
Imagining a world without bonds
Finding the best hill to climb
Your footsteps land on soft soil,
the ultimate developer’s foil
a garden grown out of love that seeds collective work and fosters soul through toil
the result of shared effort and clear levers
your sister’s career and your brother’s family grow next to peppers
we make the world in our effort/to participate
a people’s power can’t abide just this date,
so we declare and dedicate
everyday democracy day
Power rests on your shoulders, lands in your fates
Burden is collectivized across your neighbors’ and your weights
The revolution is resolution
In high definition you’ll find
the 4th dimension of your will cuts through space
and imbues time with unavoidable pace
Our steps, through our choices, leave a world ground and
bound to what we decide and how we lace
the soil with our grace; how we vote the ballots of love and care with our faith.
Decide: our destinies in struggle shine brightly as the distance awaits.
Alula Hunsen (he/him) is an Editorial Manager at the Boston Ujima Project, working on narrative-building towards liberatory urban futures. Follow his written work elsewhere here.
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