Kamala Harris: "A chance to chart a new way forward."
Embracing (literally) Anita Hill, hands clasped with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the nation gets ghosted by Beyoncé (kind of), a special edition Good Riddance, and of course, Kamala.
Friends,
Before we dive in, I want to invite you to join me tomorrow, Saturday, August 24th from 1pm - 2pm ET, for a special LIVE Zoom edition of Good Riddance, the series I host each Saturday in the chat! I want to see your faces, hear your voices, and talk about the DNC with you! The Zoom link will be emailed to all paid subscribers thirty minutes prior to the start of the Zoom. I can’t wait to connect with you all in this way!
It’s hard to describe what an extraordinary day yesterday was, filled with soul-rousing panels with top leaders in politics, political organizing, and social justice, followed by an evening of exceptional speeches and musical performances. (Not me sobbing at The Chicks singing a hauntingly gorgeous rendition of the national anthem in three-part harmony 😭😭)
The morning started off with a shower, a bowl of yogurt as big as my face (I have a small face, so I’m not sure this comparison does what it’s supposed to), and a garment steaming of my fully “suffragette white” outfit to celebrate all the women trailblazers who have come before.
All ready to go, I hopped in an Uber and headed to McCormick Place for another full day of Live Talk events with The Meteor in partnership with Emerge, an organization that trains women to run for office—and win. First up was an impassioned, compelling panel/podcast recording with journalist and host of UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham; author and professor, Brittney Cooper; and my friend, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. The women talked about this complicated moment filled with joy and anxiety surrounding the expectations and accountability of a Black woman candidate. Rep. Pressley told a story that I won’t soon forget about her own experience working with Indigenous people on environmental injustice. She said as she was leaving the reservation, an Elder leader of the tribe stopped her and told her, “Be a better ancestor than descendant.” She talked about the vital importance of making what you leave behind here on this Earth really count; that it’s our legacy, and it’s what we teach those that come after us that matters most.
Congresswoman Pressley and I first met over a decade ago at the DNC, and I worked to help get her elected to Congress in 2018/19. Ayanna is a visionary leader, and I feel lucky to have been able to call her a friend and a co-conspirator all these years. It had been a few years since we’d seen each other, and when her panel was over, we hugged and held each other like old friends do. We clasped hands and she called me her sister. I feel exactly the same way.
Later, legendary leader Anita Hill showed up.