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By Rosa Naparstek

Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot 7 times in the back last week, in front of his three children by a policeman holding him by his T-shirt. Jacob Blake is now in the hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. He was originally shackled to the bed, described as standard procedure though he cannot move. Jacob Blake was named after his Father, Jacob Blake, who was named after his Father, Jacob Blake. And may this lineage leading back to the shackles that brought him and him and him here, now in the name of the Name remind us all of who we are to unshackle us all.

Awesome Awesome Awesome

Greater than enough

Let each petal blossom

From stones that

Were rough cut.

Never mind the memory

Never mind the mind

Don’t get lost in reverie

It will steal you blind.

Just say the name

say the name, say

the name the same

and taste the waters

of a world where

Jacob Blake where

Jacob Blake Jacob Blake

is Jacob Blake.

A refugee of WWII, Rosa Naparstek’s long and varied career charts a path from studies in Physics to a Law Degree and straight into art-making, with social activism front-and-center throughout. For more, please visit rosanaparstek.com.