Souljourning for Truth Sketch (4/26/22) by Wanda Sabir

 

Sojourner Truth sketch from the photo here. 

 

Souljourning for Truth Project 2022

 In 2021 “Wombfulness Gatherings” was born. We discussed the power of the Black womb: her resistance and resilience, sanctity and sacredness, her stories, her recovery: womb as safety. Sojourner Truth’s story resonated with me. She took her freedom. Walked away from the plantation. She is a mother who left. Black women often stay when it’s time to leave. Truth packed her bag and walked away. Heart breaking, she walked away from bondage carrying one child, leaving the rest.

Souljourning for Truth Project 2022 honors Black wom(b)an agency. I too, choose to walk. Take time for me to reflect on another path, another way– freedom over bondage. With courage, she (eye) walk good, she (eye) heal grief, she (eye) claim economic justice. She died poor, yet she worked for her people. Her daughters died poor too. We need to change this.

I am traveling from Alameda County, California, to Ulster County, New York. Truth wanted freed Africans given land in California, the West, but those who could have facilitated reparations did not. “Give them land in the west.” She said.

This trek from Calif. to N.Y. to Mass. to Mich. is for her and me. 2,928 miles to N.Y. where she was born and enslaved is 7 days by car. I will be on the road for almost two months being wombful.

We honor her on June 1, 2022, her chosen birthday. Libations, prayers and celebration Iya Truth! All praises due Saint Sojourner Truth! You are an excellent example of wombful integrity, faith, intelligence, wit and humor, forgiveness, and patience. I want to feel your energy. Touch the ground where you walked. Watch your sunrise and moonset and count your siblings in God’s sky at night like you and Mau-mau Bett did.

Sometimes, we need to touch somebody. I need to touch Truth. She is an ancestor, so I can touch people from the dirt that grew her work, witness the monuments that celebrate her life, and find comfort and strength in such places we intersect and overlap.“Split, we do not think broken—we do not think. We holy. Forced isolation. With separation comes clarity. She world within world.” – from “She Is,” by Wanda Sabir

There will be a short film documenting the journey. All donors will be acknowledged and invited to the virtual screening.

Visit Wombfulness Gatherings blog for more information.
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Contact: souljourning4truth@gmail.com