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[Video description: Me, Talila A. Lewis, a dark brown-skinned Black young-looking almost-forty year old wearing a white linen loose-fitting stand collar button up shirt. I am wearing dangling multi-colored teardrop earrings, a geometric multi-colored beaded Guna Yala pulseras/bracelet on one arm and a silver bracelet with a heart dangling on the other arm. I am wearing a coblat/Frida Kahlo Blue durag with a creme pinchfront cowboy hat. I am seated in front of a white wall.] I was deeply honored to have been invited to share a few words during Patty Berne's Celebration of Life today. I will share more as time progresses and look forward to supporting with Patty's Legacy Work. For now, I just want to share this video as a form of respect for and to my Elder, now Ancestor, Patricia "Patty" Berne. Presente. "WE HONOR US." - PATTY BERNE Humble thanks to all the people who worked so hard to ensure that Patty's Celebration of Life was so memorable and special. Sending my deepest condolences, comfort, and compassion to Patty's families, loved ones, and all of our communities. Eternal gratitude to Patty for their offerings, love, care, encouragement and support. To learn more about Patty and to review some of Patty's heartwork, please see the resources below this transcript. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT, COMMENTS FROM TALILA A. LEWIS: [tips hat] Talila A. Lewis here. I bring greetings from The Deep South, El Negro Sur, of what is colonially known as the united states. I feel very honored to have been invited by Patty's families--families plural--communities, organizations, to share just a few minutes of words, just a few minutes! [chuckles gently]. Um . . . this has been very difficult; and I just feel very honored. I've had . . . Well, first giving honor, honor to The Divine Creator Spirit Ancestors who are the head of my life; honor to my family and everyone who has poured into me, including Patty, to ensure that I can be WHO I am, WHERE I am, AS I am. [deep exhale] I've had the privilege and honor of sitting at the wheels of Patty and learning with and from Patty, organizing with Patty in various formations over a span of more than a decade in different contexts. And it has been truly an honor and privilege. I can say with certainty that I would not be who I am without Patty’s love and encouragement and support and care. [signs *back in time* then pauses] I don’t want to tell too many stories. I was gonna tell y’all about the last time I was with Patty, but I wanna…I’ll hold that…for now. One of my first interactions with Patty: Patty reached out to me over a decade ago after I created an offering and put it out into the world. Patty's work and offerings were a huge influence to this offering. And Patty reached out; and I was so shocked because I studied Patty's work and knew who Patty was, but certainly didn't think that I would ever just have a random reach out from Patty. And they reached out and said…they offered gratitude and encouragement. And I said, “you honor me,” or something to that effect; and Patty wrote back: “We honor Us.” And, I really . . . I certainly was raised in that Tradition [signs concept *generational/tradition*] without, without those specific words; and to have those specific words put to the practice of honoring one another has been something that's really stayed with me for all of these years. And it's the story I tell to most people about Patty when I'm first talking to folks about what I'm rooted in and what Patty was rooted in. It was not performance. It was praxis. And in a time of great performance, one thing that I can say about Patty is that Patty embodied--praxised [chuckles], practiced what they preached. Loved so deeply so generously so freely; wanting nothing in return, except that we honor one another--that we honor and take care of one another. And I'm just so grateful to have shared timespace with Patty in this realm. I'm grateful that I will be able to call upon Patty for guidance as time progresses. And as my time nears an end . . . [smiles noting wanting to say more] I just want to offer heartfelt condolences to Patty's family and loved ones and to our communities. And I want to call us back to our humanity, to ourselves, to our communities, and call us into our power in this time--call us back into our collective power in this time. Thank you and I look forward to more conversation.  Image of Patty Berne in an off the shoulder vestido huipil blanco with red orange green flowers. Patty's jet black curly hair covers her shoulders, and she is wearing silver necklace and bracelet hammered metal. The headrest of Patty's wheelchair can be seen a bit in the background with the quote below. “Disability justice was a reaction to the ways that the U.S. disability rights movement “invisibilized the lives of peoples who lived at intersecting junctures of oppression – disabled people of color, immigrants with disabilities, queers with disabilities, trans and gender non-conforming people with disabilities, people with disabilities who are houseless, people with disabilities who are incarcerated, people with disabilities who have had their ancestral lands stolen, amongst others.”
-Patricia “Patty” Berne, Co-Founder, Executive & ArtisticDirector of Sins Invalid
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This is a June 8, 2025 reading of a piece I created and published with truthout.org in fall 2019. I consider this piece to be one of my most important offerings during the 20-teens. The piece can be accessed in English text and English audio-only here (and below), and can be accessed in in spoken English with audiovisual here (and above). Note: The editor created the title, "Trump's Rule Attacking Disabled and Low-Income Migrants Has Violent History". I was not a fan and I have a number of titles of my own, including, "Public Charge: The Current Move to a Permanent Underclass of Migrants has its Roots in American Enslavement." I hope you will engage with this offering as its relevance has only increased over the past five years. On August 14, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its final public charge rule. This policy would allow the U.S. government to deny permanent residency and visas to people who rely on or who are “likely to rely on” public benefits for food, housing and medical assistance. The Trump administration’s intent is to substantially reduce the number of people who are eligible for permanent residency and visas by drastically broadening the definition of what makes a person dependent on the government — or what makes them a “public charge.”
Some trace the public charge rule back to the late 19th and early 20th century anti-Chinese and other immigration laws. However, the first “public charge” laws emerged some 300 years earlier. Seventeenth century public charge laws established criteria for enslaved Black people to be denied or granted manumission, or freedom granted by one’s owner. Dozens of antebellum public charge laws required enslaved people to prove that if freed, they would “never become a public charge” or that they would “not be likely to become chargeable.” Today is John Wilson, Jr.'s birthday. As such, I must note that anything published about him that is not from/by Fria M. Wilson (Moore), Talila A. Lewis, or HEARD should not be shared. Ijeoma Oluo and HarperOne / HarperCollins's "book", Be A Revolution (edited by Rakesh Satyal) grotesquely misrepresents, disrespects, distorts, and commodifies John Wilson; his family; his friend and long-time advocate, Talila A. Lewis (me); as well as his political home, HEARD (an organization that I founded and directed for free for over a decade), and many other Black/Indigenous, disabled, queer, GNC/trans organizations, collectives, communities, ancestors & living peoples. Oluo is represented by Lauren Abramo of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC. We will be sharing more information here on Disability Visibility Project soon, but out of respect for John Wilson, myself, and our communities, we ask the public not support or purchase this book or support this publisher until they have taken meaningful steps to rectify the egregious harms against me, John Wilson, HEARD, the Harriet Tubman Collective, #DisabilitySolidarity, and the Black/Indigenous disabled people who the author "profiled" without notice or consent. Do not share any information from this book with the public and do not invite this author to your libraries, universities, bookstores, establishments to discuss this book. We will share more information about John Wilson, his family, HEARD, and myself in our time, in our own publications, and in our own languages, and our own "voices". In the interim, please learn about and share information that HEARD and I have created about John Wilson's life, case, family, and wrongful convictions of deaf/disabled people. If you want to learn more from social media, search the hashtags #JohnWilsonLives, #DeafWrongfulConviction, #DeafInPrison. Thank you.  watercolor image of Ki'tay D. Davidson by Elyssa Siegel. Ki'tay is holding a microphone with one hand and snapping with his other. He is wearing his favorite "do you even roll bro?" t shirt with his arms out and mustard orange jeans with a black leather hat turned backwards. (and the hand of Allie Cannington, his co-presenter and best friend) holding a microphone next to him. Allie cant be fully seen. Art gifted to TL & Allie in 2015 after Ki'tay's passing. December 2, 2024 marks Ki'tay D. Davidson's tenth year as an Ancestor. In honor of his tenth year as an Ancestor, we hope to share some news with our communities about what his mother and loved ones have been working on to honor him and share a couple of his photos, videos, offerings that have never been made public. This is an invitation to get know Ki'tay D. Davidson through his and his communities' own expressions. Important note: Ijeoma Oluo and HarperOne / HarperCollins' recent "book", Be A Revolution (edited by Rakesh Satyal) misrepresents Ki'tay D. Davidson and commodifies his death alongside many other Black/Indigenous, disabled, queer, GNC/trans organizations, collectives, communities, ancestors and living peoples. Information about Ki'tay D. Davidson in this text is inaccurate. His mother, family, friends, communities, and I (his partner) ask you not share any information about him from this "book." Oluo is represented by Lauren Abramo of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC. Please only share information about Ki'tay from Ki'tay and our communities. We will be sharing more information here and on Disability Visibility Project soon. We thank you in advance for your support. POETRY FROM KI'TAY: This poem has never before been released to the public. It was released on the occasion of StaceyFest, on July 20, 2024. First electronically drafted by Ki'tay on September 5, 2014, then entitled Embracing masculinity to heal., Ki'tay landed on this final title, to be trans, to be a flower (intergenerational healing and transformation). One of Stacey Park Milbern's last acts of solidarity was to develop a fellowship in honor of Ki'tay. Listen to this poem in spoken English by me, Talila A. Lewis here; and review this poem in English text here. The image below of the poem is a screen shot from the actual text typed exactly as Ki'tay D. Davidson typed it on prior to his transition.  A poem by Ki’tay D. Davidson first electronic draft created on September 5, 2014. Ki’tay passed away on December 2, 2014. It is unclear if he had finalized this poem. Read by Talila A. Lewis, July 19, 2024 for StaceyFest.  An image of Ki'tay D. Davidson on the campus of American University holding up a pink sign that says I Aspire to . . . [individuals can write whatever they want in response, Ki'tay wrote]: redefine masculinity. In the background there are people standing chatting with each other in small groups of three or two. Ki'tay is a Black young person with dark brown skin, a teenie afro a gray hoodie and a brown satchel with his books on one shoulder. Photo circa 2012/2013. CONVOS WITH KI'TAY!
 Image of Ki'tay D. Davidson in a dark pinstriped suit with a blue and yellow bowtie looking straight into the lens of the camera and smiling with his spirit. He is confident and surrounded by green nature. Photo by Talila A. Lewis TRIBUTES TO KI'TAY:
#KitayLives |
Author's NoteI dream incessantly of justice. Hoping to calm my mind & stir yours through this freedom space. Archives
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