Black Bird In The Bell

The bell symbolizes captivity and freedom. The Iron bell was used by kidnappers and human traffickers during enslavement to keep track of the work of the enslaved. The bell was also used by enslaved people to signal escapes and revolutions. 

In this piece of peace…The blackbird peers out of the bell, poised to ring it to signify the revolution. The Blackbird came to be after hearing Jon Batiste’s version of Black Bird, originally by the Beatles.

Paul McCartney wrote Black Bird, “explaining that "blackbird" should be interpreted as "black girl", in the context of the civil rights troubles in the southern 1960s US.  Many years later McCartney highlighted Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford as inspirations for Blackbird, both part of a group of black students who enrolled at all-white Central High School after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Arkansas Gov.

As a Black person, I know that our troubles have never been limited to the South. In my 30’s, I  am living through an all out assault on Black progress and Black life. I find the personal and political obsession with our ascendence as a people to be fascinating. It is understood that the rabid need to contain and push back the power of Black people can only be seen as a reflection of our true power.  To the detriment of everyone living in America, the politics of anti-blackness will continue to infect and stunt the progress of the entire country. 

Anti-blackness in the U.S. finds its roots in the dehumanization of a people. This dehumanization and its accompanying systemic violence is a parasite that we have seen mutate and find its hosts in places like FaliSteen, Congo, and beyond. Greed, power, and profit over people. Until we truly fight this parasite domestically, we will not be as powerful as we could be in the fights for freedom abroad.

And so the Blackbird rings the bell. Blackbird rings the bell in unison with all oppressed peoples around the world.