Whenever my soul and spirit need reminders of why I do what I do and who I do it for I 1) put on Elaine Brown’s Seize the Time and 2) browse archives containing documents created by Black Panthers. The Black Panther newspaper called Elaine’s album “the first songs of the American revolution.” Here’s a great excerpt about the album from Smithsonian Music: “Illustrated by BPP minister of culture Emory Douglas, the album’s striking front cover conveys the Party’s embrace of militaristic methods, investment in black youth, and status of the composer herself, who would go on to chair the Party from 1974 to 1977. A black figure, dressed in a purple jacket and holding a Soviet-made AK-47 (possibly a symbol of solidarity with the North Vietnamese), dominates the space. The fingers that grip the assault rifle’s lower handguard are painted purple, projecting a tone of feminine strength, and Brown’s authorial role is made explicit on the bottom left where a supporter carries a flag with the word “Elaine” running below her portrait. Cut-out images of fist-clenched children take various positions on the cover, collage-like, as they play-salute the cause. They reinforce the point that more than the Party’s bellicose ideology, which remains at the forefront of the popular imagination today, the cornerstone of its initiatives was community outreach programs like early morning breakfasts for underprivileged youths. The presence of the children should also bring to mind the work of Huggins’s widow Ericka, who was the editor of the Panthers’ newspaper and educational director of the Intercommunal Youth Institute, an elementary school run by the Party in East Oakland.” Finally, here are some final reflections of mine that are grounding me so fully: “Rooting for everybody Black” is one thing; actively working toward 1) improving our lives and material conditions, 2) eliminating the conditions of possibility for our harm and suffering, and 3) collective flourishing and spiritual striving is another. Love and strength to you all. May be rest and make time and create spaces where we don’t have to be resilient.