By Dora Muhammad
With provocative spoken word, Jaha Zainabu captivated everyone gathered October 17th for “An Evening of Creative Witness” during the 15th anniversary of WomanPreach! Blessed to know its founder, Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman as my sister and friend, I was excited to be present for this milestone. The program transformed into a splendid immersion of the life we bring through the truth of our breath. For Jaha is more than WP’s artist-in-residence. She is a poet-prophet. Like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs of Shu with outstretched arms upholding the sky and feet firmly rooted in the earth, she was a living reminder that we are vessels, holding the air between.
From the pulpit into pews, the poetics of parenting, or pillow talk between partners, the inner peace and personal balance of our intentional breath carry our communal longevity. Our collective breath moves the journey of our people forward, a kinetic energy connecting body with mind, and our spiritual intelligence to the wisdom of the Divine. That cool evening mid-October in contemplation of the program’s theme of “Art as Voice,” I wrote a reflection for a local church Advent booklet.
Weeks later, someone read a patchwork alteration of my reflection as their own in a meeting. In seconds, I instantly traveled Zee Clarke’s Ayurvedic journey to write, “Black People Breathe,” drawing her title as fact and directive. To thieves of thought and appropriators of ideas who thumb sage and vex Holy Spirit—mosaic plagiarism is not the flex you think it is. It is artful, not art; not the art that is voice. Mischief copies format but can’t create the sacred cadence of lyrical Lamaze. Only with authentic breathwork do we birth holistic healing and true freedom.
Our Rhythm in The Labor of Liberation
“Prophesy to the breath… Come from the four winds, O breath.” Ezekiel 37:9 (NRSVUE)
Breathe. For the nativity of saviours.
For as he was sent, Jesus said, “I send you” (John 20:21-22). Breathing on us, his exhortation to receive the Holy Spirit ushered in our comfort measure for the work of our communal salvation. The Divine arrives in the safe spaces we open for the presence of our sacred love.
Breathe. For the renaissance of our people.
The air is cooling and breathing is challenged as we ascend into elevated sanctums (Mark 9:2-7). We may be fatigued, but we are fulfilling prophetic anticipation. Under the cloud of witnesses, ancestral declarations that we are Beloved overshadow our fears. We are returning transfigured into dazzling divine light for the world.
Breathe. For the birth of new worlds.
Grasp indigenous wisdom of the four winds symbolized in the cross of medicine wheels, breaths in the cycle of life. Northern winds of cleansing breaths bookend each contraction and southern winds of panting breaths pass us through the peak of contractions. Western winds of transition breaths carry the rain for new life dawning with eastern winds of focused breaths at the onset of labor.
The end is a beginning. Advent. Bear down… freedom is coming.
Oh, Living God, help us prophesy to our breath to find our rhythm in the throes of the labor of our liberation. Amen.
Dora is the founder of The AWARE Project (Advocacy for Women’s Activism, Rights and Empowerment) and convener of Creative Grace Conversations. She serves as Faith in Public Life’s Theologian in Residence and the Institute of Caribbean Studies’ Ambassador to Women.
