I once again have the honour of a solidarity art piece (Honouring Fierce Resistance) being part of the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar.  The 2019 theme is “Health/Care.”

As stated in the calendar, “The calligraphy Honouring Fierce Resistance, honours the resilience of Black nations, communities, and individuals, and the many ways they choose, and chose, to fight against oppression, in order to thrive.  The depiction of fire is inspired by Black people using arson as a form of resistance against slavery. This fire is made up of the phrase, “Black Lives Matter” using Urdu/hindi phonetics, in urdu script.  The piece is part of ongoing work in centering Blackness within south asian Urdu/hindi speaking communities.  Indeed, as stated by Alicia Garza, of #BlackLivesMatter, “It is appropriate and necessary for us to acknowledge the critical role that Black lives and struggles for Black liberation have played in inspiring and anchoring, through practice and theory, social movements for the liberation of all people.”  Copies of this piece are available at, and benefitting, the inspiring Black-centered community bookstore in Montréal-Nord, Librairie Racines (Instagram@racinesmontreal), owned by Gabriella Kinté.

Calendar proceeds  will be divided among: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Palestine), Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) and other groups in need.  For more info: certaindays.org