Ya Sankofa! By: Torrance R. Harvey M.S. ED. Sometimes I must move slowly like a cat... Sometimes I must move with dispatch. There are times I must be silent, unheard. Just like the morning spring sun shining over the harmonious tweeting birds. Then, there is that one moment in time I must ROAR loudly For everyone to hear and fear everywhere. Bringing their hearts and minds to understand ONE THING. I AM the TRUE Lion and the King! Ya Sankofa! is a literary journey of reflection. It is an artistic expression of cultural awareness in a contemporary sense from a historical lens in the form of a series of poems.

Ben Gracik is a troubled man, barely coping with life as he struggles to make sense of the death of his young daughter.

Border of Lights, a volunteer collective, returns each October to Dominican-Haitian border towns to bear witness to the 1937 Haitian Massacre ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. This crime against humanity has never been acknowledged by the Dominican government and no memorial exists for its victims. A multimodal, multi-vocal space for activists, artists, scholars, and others connected to the BOL movement, The Border of Lights Reader provides an alternative to the dominant narrative that positions Dominicans and Haitians as eternal adversaries and ignores cross-border and collaborative histories. This innovative anthology asks large-scale, universal questions regarding historical memory and revisionism that countries around the world grapple with today. "By bringing together in one volume poetry, visual arts, literary analysis, in-depth interviews and historical analysis this volume will provide its readers with a comprehensive view of the causes and the aftermath of the massacre." —Ramón Antonio Victoriano-Martínez, University of British Columbia Contributions by Julia Alvarez, Amanda Alcántara, DeAndra Beard, Nancy Betances, Jésula Blanc, Matías Bosch Carcuro, Cynthia Carrión, Raj Chetty, Catherine DeLaura, Magaly Colimon, Juan Colón, Robin Maria DeLugan, Lauren Derby, Rosa Iris Diendomi Álvarez, Polibio Díaz, Rana Dotson, Rita Dove, Rhina P. Espaillat, Maria Cristina Fumagalli, Saudi García, Scherezade García, Juan Carlos González Díaz, Kiran C. Jayaram, Pierre Michel Jean, Nehanda Loiseau Julot, Jake Kheel, Carlos Alomia Kollegger, Jackson Lorrain “Jhonny Rivas”, Radio Marién, Padre Regino Martínez Bretón, Sophie Maríñez, April J. Mayes, Jasminne Mendez, Komedi Mikal PGNE, Osiris Mosquea, Megan Jeanette Myers, Rebecca Osborne, Ana Ozuna, Edward Paulino, John Presimé, Laura Ramos, Amaury Rodríguez, Doña Carmen Rodríguez de Paulino, The DREAM Project, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Ilses Toribio, Deisy Toussaint, Évelyne Trouillot, Richard Turits, William Vazquez, Chiqui Vicioso, Bridget Wooding, and Óscar Zazo.

Last night Charlie went on a bender. Today he woke up with a tattoo of the mythical African sankofa bird on his right shoulder blade. The solid black tribal tattoo was probably too dark for his pale white skin, but he hadn't actually chosen the tattoo himself. The sankofa bird looked back over its shoulder as it flew forward justifying its meaning - one can not move intelligently into the future without paying attention to the past. Contrasting again with the too dark tattoo and the too light skin was the pretty brown face of the little girl peaking over her father's shoulder as he cradled her. What on earth was he going to do with this little life? Two days ago he didn't even know she existed. Yesterday he woke up with this strange tattoo. Today he decided to go to the hospital and take responsibility for his daughter. He didn't even know what the tattoo was and why those men had taken it upon themselves to have it given to him. Today it was just some dumb bird that he was contemplating having removed. It would be quite a while before he would find out why he had gotten it and what the significance of it really was. He repositioned her into his arms and tenderly kissed little Sankofa on the forehead. "We can do this."