NJ Mvondo and Juan Miranda
#TimeForTheNine Spoken Word Performance
This title of this project is inspired by a public safety initiative supported by NJ and Juan, called Time for The Nine: https://davis9.carrd.co
Within the scope of our community engagement as activists and people of color, we have both experienced inequalities and stolen freedoms, societal trials and small victories, which we share in this spoken word performance.
The piece explores the Black and Latinx experiences--from the cultural barriers on the journey to simply exist, to the often forced identities associated with governmental structures. While in the beginning NJ and Juan’s stories clash, a thread of unity emerges when they compare experiences back and forth, giving way to the power we summon when we, so-called “minorities”, work together toward our mutual freedom.
NJ Mvondo:
An artist and social entrepreneur based in Davis, CA, NJ Mvondo is the founder of the Interactive Healing Arts Project, Multiculturalism Rocks and a BIPOC pop-up bookstore owner. She is a Board Advisor of the Social Justice-based online publication, the Davis Vanguard, and a City of Davis Human Relations Commissioner.
IG: @njmvondo
Juan Miranda:
Juan Miranda received his Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of California, Davis, with a Designated Emphasis in Performance Studies. Former Spanish Radio host for KDVS 90.3 FM, he currently sits on the Advisory Board of The Davis Vanguard, and works independently as a translator, performer, peer reviewer, and writer.
NJ Mvondo
Juan Miranda
Darning Stitch, by Michael C. Healey
In collaboration with NJ Mvondo & Juan Miranda: #TimeForTheNine
...threads may form a herringbone
California, here I come
Though it may not be where I started from
Red, white, and blue with golden hue
I pledge a grievance unto you
Writ freedom; justice; liberty
My health and safety set me free
Yet, words seem not meant for me
Of this I weave
Absent wealth, I ask opportunity
To stitch a new community
I ask a home secure like yours
With open arms and open doors
No need for locks, nor fear of arms
From those sworn to protect from harm
And if knowledge is a tree
Its branches reaching sea to sea
Let learning be our industry
Where schools weave complex tapestries
Of my work, I sing…
Though threads may form a herringbone
The weaver’s song that we intone
Is echoed in long halls unknown
‘Til garments worn have come undone
Though we may cleave to rock and stone
Our skin flayed wide exposes bone
And dashed against the shore alone
To witness liberty postponed
Though we may lose all blood and bone
Our bodies worked to ash and stone
In wilderness to walk alone
Until the way to us is shown
Of my home, I sing…
And if neighbors we’re to be
I won’t fear you, please don’t fear me
For this be not community
Until our eyes together see
A promise made is work for all
We cannot dream behind a wall
If truly outstretched arms can bear
The weight together we must share
Then on a loom let’s place these woes
A burden darned as friends, not foes
Red white and blue with golden hue
To this I stitch a promise true
I offer up my threads to you
To sew our history anew
And if neighbors we’re to be
I won’t fear you, please don’t fear me
America, the blessed be
I will see you - will you see me?
I pledge allegiance to a hope
These words be not only a trope
And with wild seeds of grain I sow
To carpet fields where freedoms grow
Of this I weave