Like you, I am deep in reflection. 2020 was hard. At times, it felt downright impossible. Other times, it was full of beauty. And power.
As you dream and intention set for 2021, I would like to share the most important thing that happened to me this year.
First, thank you to the publications for building with me, from @voguemagazine who profiled me to the many covers I was blessed with @highsnobiety@anothermagazine@voguemagazine@outmagazine@nylonmag and my curation of @dazed as well as working with @beatsbydre (special thank you to mm).
More to come.
Thank you to @jammyjam and @kellybushnovak for your leadership and brilliance.
Now, to the thing I wanted to share:
The most important thing to happen to me this year was you.
All of you. Your belief. Your conviction. Your courage.
You inspire me.
As you dream, remember you are profound and powerful. That we made change this year under impossible conditions and we won. Now it’s time to keep on winning. Keep on fighting. I am so grateful for you. 2021 will be hard work. And we are ready for it.
Here’s to you, and all that you will do.
Sometimes, when you are lucky, you meet people who move at a similar vibrancy. They are the ones searching for meaning, for depth and beauty. The ones who work to capture and curate what it means to be alive. To be in culture. To be human. @alastairmckimm@mario_sorrenti and I were completely overcome by the end of this shoot. Time is truly the greatest gift we have to give, and I was given so much on this journey. May we all know this gift.
Big love to @i_d and the entire team. Utopia in dystopia cover. What a dream.
Thank you @jammyjam and @teamid and @caafashion
Text @jennamahale
Interview @tamikadmallory
Photography @mario_sorrenti
Styling @alastairmckimm
Editor-in-Chief + Creative Director @AlastairMcKimm
Art Direction and Editorial Design @Studio191ny
Hair @sapongjohnnie for Leonor Greyl at Salon Benjamin.
Make-up @aarondemey1 at Art Partner
Nail technician @marisacarmichaelat Forward Artists
Set design @philipphaemmerle
Lighting technician @larsbeau
Photography assistance @iamjaviervillegas and Robb Epifano
Digital technician Chad Meyer
Styling assistance @madisonmat and @miltonmania
Make-up assistance @taylertreadwell
Production 138 Productions
Tailors @martin_keehn and Keke Cheng
Casting director @samuel_ellis for DMCASTING
all clothing @calvinklein
A sermon on the project of whiteness. I once said privilege is not about what you’ve gone through, but what you haven’t had to go through, and this is the talk about what that means right now.
Assata Shakur has passed away. She was in Havana, Cuba. She was 78.
Assata was a legendary light to the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army and the generations of freedom fighters who were radicalized by her words, her courage, her defiance. In this way, she lives on.
Assata changed my life. I read her autobiography until the pages were worn, the spine split, the cover creased. She felt like a miracle.
It is only now that I understand the real miracle lay in her escape, in her survival. This country was so threatened by Black leadership in its own communities that it went to extraordinary lengths to murder, deceive, and destroy an entire generation of them.
To rise up knowing this is what made Assata remarkable. It’s what she called us into. We too can become remarkable. We must.
As her example is hailed in the coming days, rightfully so and not nearly enough, I want you to remember what sacrifice she made, the risks she took, all for demanding change. The State took too much and we, the Left, give back so little. I hope that as we celebrate her freedom, we understand it was freedom within the confines of American exile. We can and must do better. I believe the fight ahead is ours to win.
May we leave a generational mark that shines so brightly, generations not yet thought of will feel its glow.
Yours in revolution,
jfk
No Kings was beautiful — but yes queens, yes feminists, yes revolutionaries, yes artists, yes dreamers, yes freedom fighters, yes liberationists, yes advocates and yes everyday activists. Yes to keeping up the fight. Yes using your voice every chance you get.
Movements are maligned. They call our activations “war zones,” they criticize the “optics” of resistance — but all movements are rooted in love.
May we all know the kind of love that believes your life is worth fighting for. May we all know the clarity of conviction. It is our duty to fight. It is our duty to win.
@darkwokejfk
As far as I’m concerned, today is our Inauguration Day too.
This is the beginning of our collective come out. It’s time we came out of the closet as freedom fighters, humanists and revolutionaries. It’s time we came out as artists and liberators and abolitionists. This is the era where we come out of our fear and into our power.
So may today embody our commitment to protect each other, our dreams, and everything we hold dear.
This is the first day of making every day over the next four yrs hell for fascists, the first day where we imagine a world vastly different, and fight like hell for it. So love deeply. And fear not. For these will be the greatest days of our lives.
When we speak of the next four years in the future, it will not be recounting what was done to us, but what we did when the bigots came.
I want to remind you of Election Day. This is our Villain Era. Our unbelievably cool, punk rock, black parade, take no shit, guerrilla shit. We’re in this 2gthr.
So good luck to our enemies, those hoes will need it.
I’ll be here everyday with you. Here + @jfktodayshow
I love u, and I’m excited for our future.
Trump made my mom afraid for my safety while in a hospital bed. I will never forgive that.
Family, I know this is an exhausting and emotional time for many. I want to be clear where I stand in this: I am ready, and I am tireless.
I will never forgive that my friends fear for their safety, that people I love, ppl who look like me, are still forced to share things like, “I don’t know how to make people care,” after putting in endless hrs trying to make this a better place for everyone.
My call for villainy has been widely interpreted as divisive. That’s bc it is. The Paradox of Tolerance demands taking a stand against intolerance that exploits societal values. I fight for unity and always will, but I will not allow abusing us to go unchecked in the name of civility, ever.
I don’t know if any or all of the Trump Admin guys are genuinely hateful, but I know that hate isn’t a dealbreaker for them, that racists are commissioned and authorized by them, that women dying from abortion bans isn’t worth a pause to them, and that anti-trans and anti-immigrant policy are unconscionably served up as the solution to society’s ills, devastating those communities in the process.
I don’t know if they’re genuinely evil people, but I know that billionaires used their extraordinary wealth to exploit ppl struggling over the cost of eggs,rent and gas. I know that billionaires cosigned a platform of bigotry for unregulated federal contracts to increase their wealth in a time of unimaginable human suffering. I know they made back door deals that kill democracy.
Trump ran on a campaign of change. He called us his enemies. He won his ppl over. He cut taxes for the rich. He fights for his ppl.
And I’m going to fight for mine. You deserve to be protected. You deserve leadership that is unafraid. You deserve to be celebrated. You deserve every fucking good thing. I love you. I’m sorry. And I’m here. It will be hard, but this is our time. Let’s not waste it. 🖤🖤🖤
@jfktodayshow
#politics #podcast
