Last year marked 200 years since Harriet Tubman’s birth. To commemorate Tubman’s bicentennial, Ms. magazine launched the Tubman 200 project, honoring her extraordinary legacy.
“Tubman stood at the intersection of race and gender and ushered in freedom for all because her own freedom required it,” said scholar and project editor and Ms. contributor Janell Hobson. “She has stood the test of time through her incomparable example of bravery, fierceness, persistence, faith, self-assurance, compassion and commitment to solidarity. May her memory serve as a guiding light, much like the North Star she followed, steering us all in the right direction at this critical juncture.”
The multi-disciplinary project included: conversations with Tubman’s descendants; an interactive timeline of Tubman’s life; essays from experts including Dr. Keisha N. Blain and Kate Clifford Larson; a calculator that determines what the U.S. (literally) owes Tubman; a portal for readers to submit their own haikus celebrating Tubman’s legacy; and original poetry—including the show-stopping “dark energy” by scholar and poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
Read the full poem below or watch Gumbs perform the poem—then we invite you to explore the full Tubman 200 project.
dark energy
for Harriet Tubman
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, 2022
1822
the Astronomical Society
of London meets
to write down what they know of stars
in eastern shore Maryland
araminta screams
into an unmeasurable life
1835
sap dark root of love
opening out your skull
praise the girl who watched the comet and knew
praise the girl who tracked the north star and knew
praise the girl who studied herself and knew one thing:
sky is a map
1844
expand the universe
open the wet reflective road
blood bashed temporal lobe
let everything that is not love
escape your skull
like so much stardust
1849
and while they chart
the pricks of light
use night
love night
be night
free night
write night
if colonialism is a starving hunter
and slavery is a splintered pencil
go
become untraceable
1851
if all you breathe is freedom
they can’t hear you
if all you take is freedom
they can’t steal you
if all you feel is freedom
they can’t find you
if all you give is freedom
they can’t stop you
if all you love is freedom
they can’t catch you
girl you look just like freedom
they can’t see you
1863
sing to the river
wake the people
sing to the rice fields
wake the land
sing to the trees
the vines
the moss
sing to the river
the people come running
buildings burning in their wake
like stars
1865
walk away from the broken promise
walk away like you walked before
walk away from the muddled battle
walk on into your own front door
freedom is the people you choose
the air you breathe
1896
sometimes
the meeting room
is a night sky
you see infinite versions
of the universe
looking back at you
in each blinking face
1910
the comet comes back
around
the ground
has changed
1913
if you build it right
if you know the trees
if you make it sweet enough for your parents
and big enough for your community
and soon enough to live in it yourself
the old folks home can be a spaceship
1922
somebody thinks
they can fix the cosmos
get black history down in writing
fix your image keep you there
somewhere the first and last astronomer laughs
2022
and laughs
Up next:
U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For 50 years, Ms. has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms. today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you. For as little as $5 each month, you’ll receive the print magazine along with our e-newsletters, action alerts, and invitations to Ms. Studios events and podcasts. We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity.
