Today we celebrate the life of Angela Davis. Her powerful legacy reminds us that love and rage are two sides of the same coin in the ongoing fight for justice and liberation. Her birthday comes at a time when we reflect on the vision of MLK Jr., whose message of the beloved community continues to inspire us to build a world rooted in justice, equality, and care. As we honor them, we gathered in the spirit of collective action during RYSE’s Youth Up Mobilize: We Take Care of Us Paint N Sip workshop held during the Anti-Police Terror Project’s “Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy Week of Action”. This was a space where our young people’s love and rage could converge, fueling our resistance, our healing, and our creative expression.
RYSE youth members and staff gathered to channel the same energy that Angela Davis embodied throughout her life: a revolutionary love that demands justice and a righteous resistance that refuses to stay silent. Together we painted a mural, enjoyed a tea bar, and wrote love & rage letters to honor the dreams of the past, reflect on the struggles of today, and shape the futures we deserve.
Love: The Radical Care that is our Birthright
Love is a radical, transformative force. It is the love that pushes us to care for each other, even when the world tries to break us down. It is the love that makes us organize, mobilize, and demand change. It is the love that calls us to protect our communities, to hold one another close, and to affirm our shared humanity. As we gathered to paint, we drew from the deep wells of love that have always fueled movements for justice. From the Black Panther Party, where Angela Davis was an integral figure, to the international marches for racial justice, to the youth in our communities today who are carrying the torch forward – this is the kind of love that protects, liberates, and unites. The mural we created together is a testament to that love – a visual manifestation of our collective care and resilience.
In addition to our mural, we had the opportunity to write love letters – to ourselves, to our ancestors, and to our communities. Just as Angela Davis penned letters of resistance and hope during her imprisonment, we too wrote our affirmations of love for justice, for freedom, and for the world we are building together. These letters are not just expressions of emotion, they are declarations of our commitment to care for one another, to fight for one another, and to continue the work of building a better world.
““I feel sadness that for the next 4 years, this person is going to have the decision to do whatever he wants with us. I am extremely nervous because coming from immigrant parents, he’s trying to separate us and take us out of the country that we contribute to a lot. I wish that I would be able to change everything and that he never became a president in the first place.”
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“I honestly just have emotions everywhere. Feelings I don’t even know how to describe. Mainly rage. Just mad about how the world feels like it’s falling apart and even those around me that are hurting inside just hurts knowing I can’t do much but be by their side. Mad because my people are hurting. And to those hard working souls who have built a life here get sent back because some claim them as “criminals” breaks me. The ones with families who are hurting because of that. It honestly destroys me.”
As we honor Angela Davis’s birthday and uphold the radical legacy of MLK Jr., we do so with the knowledge that their work is far from over. We carry the baton now. We continue the fight. As the country transitions into a new political era, it is a stark reminder that love and rage must continue to drive us forward.
(January 20th, 2025 - RYSE staff at APTP’s Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy March in Oakland)
This intergenerational conversation among three of our most important contemporary visionary thinkers is happening at a crucial moment for our communities, three days after the November election. Given the stakes at this time, we will need a place to find refuge, build strategy and gather in community. Angela Davis, Lama Rod and Prentis Hemphill reflect on our current political moment and why a response grounded in a radical vision for the future and a commitment to collective liberation is more critical than ever.
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