Lift Up Your Heads, for Juneteenth

man with outstretched arms silhouetted from behind, facing the sunrise
Lift up your heads, you gates!
Lift them up, everlasting doors,
So that the glorious king can enter!
Who is he, this glorious king?
Adonai, strong and mighty,
Adonai, mighty in battle.
Psalm 24:7-8
 
For Juneteenth
 
There was a moment when
Harriet Tubman said,
my people are free, even when
the world didn’t seem it.
Didn’t show it.
 
Lift your heads up; clap your hands.
(clap your hands, make some noise,
use your face, feel your breath)
 
Everyone: Our people are free
 
And in General Order Number 3,
the freedmen are advised to
remain quietly,
freedom not yet manifest.
 
Lift your heads up; clap your hands.
(clap your hands, make some noise,
use your face, feel your breath)
 
Everyone: Our people are free.
 
We will not be quiet. We will sing for freedom,
clap our hands for freedom. Demand freedom
of our voices, of our bodies, of our lives.
 
Lift your heads up; clap your hands.
(clap your hands, make some noise,
use your face, feel your breath)
 
Everyone: Our people are free.
 
Solidarity demands action for freedom.
We will not live quietly and in our living.
Be accountable for the ways in which
Black people are not yet free.
 
Lift your heads up; clap your hands.
(clap your hands, make some noise,
use your face, feel your breath)
 
Everyone: Our people are free.

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