Why I am here

1661 Barbados assembly gathered and passed the first slave code, and as a result a host of human oppression would plague the globe from coast to coast. I come from generations of systematic oppression built to profit off human lives and justified through systems created by law, and enacted by people, who were elected by other people. 

So why do I, Tierra Stewart, do this work? I look to the past and I sit in the present and I weary at the future and I know there is a stench in the air that doesn’t seem to go away. 

When I walk into a community and see youth dropping like flies, criminalized, labeled, and locked up. I am afflicted. But I dig a little deeper. 

Lifting up the rug to reveal where the dust has settled, 

where those people elected by other people 

shut down recreational centers, 

where those people elected by other people

eliminates funds for afterschool programs, 

where those people elected by other people 

cut the funds for education, 

where those people elected by other people 

allow there to be places across this nation were students attend schools that look like prisons, and drink from led infested fountains,

and then the same people elected by other people turn to invest in prisons. 

We must set guard at the gates of the youth mind. There are evils lurking and looking to destroy and devour. And if they can destroy our youth, they can destroy the future of our people. 

I am here because the ascendant of an enslaved human cried freedom when the weather report suggested a different climate. I join this movement because my descendants marched for our rights standing even when the dog's bark was equally as big as their bite. I join this movement because someone decided to get involved with the process in hopes that it will liberate me. Change happens when the people come together in solidarity. And I see change crying out from over the mountain where the people have gathered to heal and free themselves from mental and physical bondage.