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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.”
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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
June 2026
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