Song of the Week

Listen to this song as you read to help open you up. Human Mind by Mavis Staples.

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One of the songs I love, now constantly running through my head is this remix of Mamdani telling people that they should learn how to say his name, then he spells it out. He was right, people will listen if you have a good offer— FREE bus rides, freezing stabilized rents, universal child care, increasing the minimum wage, raising taxes on big corporations, and the wealthiest 1%. Mamdani won because he had a better offer than Andrew Cuomo. God it feels good to have some wins under our belt. Due to Mamdani’s political agenda, people have labelled him “polarizing”. What some call polarizing, seems like common sense to me. I find common sense soothing.

Telling people “The name is Mamdani, M-a-n-d-a-n-i, you should learn how to say it”—it’s the shiver of self-making I want my future kids, and all kids to have—empowered, righteous, even in this small way. It’s about seeking and creating freedom from erasure and violence. It is a proactive resistance to someone else owning your name on one level, and on another given the people power behind Mamdani, it’s a collective assertion against stasis, and accepting oppression. It’s one of those things I dream about, that the next generation has a greater and greater of this sense of liberated righteousness.

It’s something I pursued when I changed my name in 2016. Moving my Japanese names front and center, I shifted from Elise Griffin to Eiko Mizushima, under the assumption that people should, and could, learn to say my Japanese names. Perhaps at a minor inconvenience for some, perhaps inviting in some discrimination and prejudice in certain environments, but offering the reward of being known from a promontory position, rather than that of a gulch. Gulches have their places, and at times need to be frequented for safety, but they rarely take us to that place of feeling seen in the ways our spirits need to be known. With that, my hope for you this week is that you move from a place that assumes your self-worth, instead of asking someone else to give it to you. The more we do this, the more we will win, in the long-term. Giving yourself attention, love, belonging, is persuasive because it’s perceptible on the level of the soul. We need so much more of it, and as always— so much more of you.

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xoxo Eiko