Let Us Descend

My friend Bill Boyle inspired me to start reading 10-15 pages of fiction every night this year. I finished my first book last week. It took Jesmyn Ward six years to write this masterpiece. Her partner died suddenly right in the middle of the whole process. Grief penetrates every page. The main character is a young women, enslaved and surviving the terror of the plantation. Like every historical novel, this book is not just about back then. It is about right now too. Because our world – from the Gaza strip to Detroit - is still possessed by a plantation perspective. 

The beauty of this book, however, is that hope, healing and liberation - for ourselves and our society - come when Something Else is centered and summoned. Something other than white skin and the profit motive. This story descends with the power of Black women moving together, accompanied by the more-than-human world of bees, trees, water, wind, soil and ancestors. The lone ranger and superhero are left out. Let Us Descend is a 300-page invitation to seek and find companions who have historically been held in low esteem. This is the only way we’ll rise.