Fire and Rain
So far, this January has presented many opportunities for me to reflect on loss, renewal, hope, and dedication.
January 6 will always remind me not to take democracy for granted. On that day in 2021, we saw insurrectionists attempting to overturn the election. We saw the gallows on the front lawn of the Capitol building and witnessed the violence and desecration. The shock of that day woke people up to the fragility of democracy. Five years later, I observe that the American people are more active and committed to resisting authoritarianism than they were before that terrifying day.
January 7
January 7 was the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the big burn in Southern California. As the fires spread over those many uncertain days, I smelled the smoke, heard the incessant sirens, packed go-bags, couldn’t sleep. Friends were evacuated, friends lost everything, friends took me in when the evacuation zone got frighteningly close to my house. The wind was so fierce that it felt possible that the entire city could be flattened. Firefighters came to us from all over the world. It was terrible and terrifying, but it could have been worse.
Months after the flames were extinguished, Descanso Gardens mounted an exhibit featuring art pieces inspired by the Eaton Fire that destroyed 14,000 acres, including almost half of the Black-owned homes in Altadena. This short film was part of the exhibit. It’s about three artists whose studios were destroyed and who created new work from the rubble and ash. For me, this is a reminder that beauty and healing can emerge from tragedy and destruction.
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God’s gonna trouble the water
January 8
January 8 I went to a screening of a documentary-in-progress about the late Rev. James Lawson, a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. and mentor to John Lewis and many other activists. Over the last decade or so, I attended a number of the workshops Rev. Lawson conducted on the philosophy and practice of nonviolence. It was an honor to be in his presence and to be offered his powerful and profound teachings.
The event was wonderful. Director Karen Hayes and producer Pamela Tom answered questions and spoke of Rev. Lawson with reverence. And one of the attendees spoke about a weekly event that I hadn’t known about. It’s called the Godmothers of the Disappeared and is modeled after vigils in Argentina in the 1980s, when the military dictatorship kidnapped and murdered with impunity. Now, in Los Angeles, we have ICE taking people without due process and without letting their families know where they are. People are scared to leave home, scared to send their children to school. People are missing. People have died.
On January 13, I went downtown to the Federal Building to join women faith leaders and supporters to sing and pray for detainees, deportees, and their loved ones. One of the songs we sang was “Wade in the Water.” It’s believed that Harriet Tubman, as she guided people away from the slavers and toward freedom, used this song to warn escapees to get off the trail and into the water to circumvent the dogs.
All is woven together. Rev. Lawson’s great-grandfather escaped from slavery and took the name Lawson after a man who helped him get to Canada via the Underground Railroad.
January 19
January 19 was King Day.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder took place in the shameful period of our country’s history when we witnessed one public murder after another. Children in church. President Kennedy and his brother Bobby. Malcolm X. Fred Hampton. Civil rights activists. Antiwar protesters. Year after year, funeral after funeral.
All of those people above who were violently taken from us were influenced and inspired by the work of Dr. King. If you get a chance, visit The National Civil Rights Museum, which is housed in the former Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Dr. King was shot. I found strength there in remembering the courage that so many people held during that time.
This year, like last year, I commemorated King Day by attending a Sing-In sponsored by the Poor Peoples Campaign and led by the exquisite and amazing Arnaé Batson (formerly of Sweet Honey In the Rock!), who led us in songs of freedom, justice, determination, and hope.
This is one of Sweet Honey’s signature songs. And this is how Arnaé shares the spirit.
About the pictures
The photos of Dr. King, Rev. Ralph Albernathy, and Rosa Parks were taken by Bob Adelman, Charles Moore, Paul Robertson, and Dan Weiner and are included in the book Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. 40 Years Later: His Life and Crusade in Pictures by Charles Johnson and Bob Adelman, published by Life Books. Copyright Bob Adelman Books 2008.
This beautiful collection opens with: “This book is dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr., to his dream of a beloved community, and to the selfless activists who brought that dream closer for all of us.”
Backgrounds include: burned chaparral on the outskirts of Altadena a year after the fire by Grigory Heaton, the planet Earth taken from space (the first one ever!) by astronaut William Anders in 1969, and photos taken by me (the Santa Monica shore of the Pacific Ocean; the glorious purple iris that appeared one morning in my back yard after a rain) in January of 2026.
