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To witness was in fact one reason I was there. Cementing something in memory is one way of cementing it in the world. But I had another reason for going, too. My daughter was 12 on the day of Nias murder. She caught the train to school from the same BART station where Nia was killed. She called me that day in a panic, terrified and bereft and full of questions that I could not answer. Why did this happen to Nia? Why did this happen to black women? Why wouldnt this happen to her? I had no answers. I could do only what parents do: promise to protect my child. So I told her that I would go into the streets that hundreds, maybe thousands of us would go into the streets, and that we would be doing it for her. We would be doing it to show her that we would not let this happen.

It was tremendously important to me that my daughter stay home that evening, safe in her room, in her pajamas and slippers, watching Netflix, eating Flamin Hot Cheetos, texting with friends while we put our flesh on the hot downtown asphalt. No child should have to protect herself. It is our job to protect one another. And this is why I protested not to make noise, or make change, but in order for the person who could not, should not be in the streets to see me, to see us all, as proof that she is not alone in caring for her life. To attend that protest was an act of love, an experience that brought me closer to life. But it was set against a backdrop of death.

For black people, Lena Waithe told me, death is always present. We were sitting in her home in Los Angeles, discussing her screenplay for Queen & Slim. Black death is very interesting in that it is devastating, but at the same time, it illuminates us, she said. She named Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Emmett Till, Fred Hampton and Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Tupac Shakur and Nipsey Hussle black figures whose deaths turned them into symbols, added tragic weight to their legacies. Four little black girls minding their own business playing in the basement of a church shook the world, she said, referring to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. You dont want those little black girls to die, because who would want that? But if they didnt, would we be as free as we are right now? There are so many sacrificial lambs in our past. Its almost like black death is necessary to set us free. And I grapple with that. All the time. Thats why I think I had to write this.

When I asked the director, Melina Matsoukas, if she thought Queen & Slim was a hopeful story, she replied almost immediately: Its a black story. Rather than a dodge, this felt like a complete answer. In blackness, hope is often complicated by the intrusion of death, bloodshed, depression, incarceration, grief, brutality. You cannot for the good of your family, your kids, your loved ones, yourself keep your face fully toward the sun when you know the darkness is chasing you. In Queen & Slim, all good things are fleeting, and all love is set against bloodletting. The characters would like it to be otherwise, but they do not have a say.

I wanted you just to look at them like: Huh, thats me. Thats my mother, thats my brother, thats my sister, thats my cousin, Waithe told me. I want you to live with them, I want you to be scared with them. I want you to fall in love with them. The idea that we are supposed to identify with the characters on a screen is not new, but the idea that we black people are supposed to identify might still be. White directors have been speaking their language for decades, Waithe said. We have to learn it, we have to find ourselves in that narrative.

For Waithe, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, finding herself in that narrative meant studying television made by people like Aaron Sorkin and the creators of Friends, David Crane and Marta Kauffman. After years acting and writing in Los Angeles, she became the first black woman ever to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, for an episode of Aziz Ansaris Master of None loosely based on her own experience of coming out to her mother. That episode was directed by Matsoukas, a woman of mixed heritage Jamaican, Cuban, Jewish and Greek who had spent a decade directing music videos for stars including Lady Gaga and Rihanna. (Her memorable video for Beyoncs Formation, with its stylistic mixture of documentary and fantasy, arrived at the height of Black Lives Matter and, to many, deftly synthesized the visual power of the movement; its look echoes in Queen & Slim.) Matsoukas describes the film as not just about black love onscreen but also about the sisterly love of the two women who came together to make it. We can be a power, she told me of the faith she has in her artistic relationship with Waithe. Trust is really important, she said. Probably the only way I survive.

Queen & Slim holds its cinematic influences for all to see. It is tempting to compare it to both Bonnie & Clyde and Thelma & Louise, as the titles syntax seems to invite. Visually, Matsoukas says that she was inspired by Belly, another cinematic debut by a music-video director turned filmmaker, Hype Williams its gritty, ever-moving camera, its flashes of light and color. And Waithe lists among her influences films like Set It Off and Love Jones, both part of a 1990s wave that had dozens of black filmmakers telling stories that felt unaffected by the white gaze the same movies that my cousins and I watched over and over on lazy summer days, memorizing every line, partly because they were about us and partly because there were so few of them.

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Queen & Slim Could Be One of the Great Love Stories of All Time if You Let It - The New York Times

Yet, many modern organizers will say its a collective belief in one another, not God, that sustains a movement. Opal Tometi, a co-founder Black Lives Matter, has described the movement as one created out of a profound sense of black love. We wanted to affirm to our people that we love one another, and that no matter how many times we hear about the extrajudicial killing of a community member, we would mourn, and affirm the value of their life.

Black Lives Matter has intentionally positioned itself outside of organized religion in an attempt to challenge the norms of religious institutions, particularly concerning issues of sexuality and male-centered leadership. But the embrace of the secular seems to be a failure on the part of the movement despite small wins in cities that are mostly liberal, the most lasting impact has been a change of conversation. And even then, the Black Lives Matter mantra has been co-opted by liberals as a political slogan rather than a pointed ideological conviction. Without the centralized leadership, oratorical strength and widespread influence organized religion has historically provided to black liberation struggles, it has been difficult for the movement to sustain itself on a national front.

I fear that absent the structural and rhetorical power offered by organized religion, it will become increasingly difficult for the left to fight the growing ideology of right wing extremism, an ideology that has always been heavily undergirded by its own religious dogma. Religion has long been crucial to the right wing in pushing its legislative agenda. In the early 1960s, for instance, the Supreme Court decisions restricting teacher-led prayer and Bible reading in the public schools helped ignite the religious right to political action, and their influence within the Republican Party has grown steadily ever since.

White evangelical support for President Trump exceeded 80 percent in the 2016 election, and they remain critical to his base. The Trump administration has often cited religious freedom in its efforts to allow medical providers to deny reproductive health care and empower anti-LGBTQ discrimination by federal contractors.

Assuming leftism to be inherently antagonistic to organized religion does a great disservice to both the history of progressive movements and modern progressivism itself, as collective belief provides both a program and a passion essential to anti-oppression movements. In many ways, the political is made more significant when intertwined with the spiritual, as belief supersedes political motivation in pursuit of a world vision that is exalted as the will of God. In the words of Dr. King: Religious obligations are met by ones commitment to an inner law, a law written on the heart. Man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love.

Beyond politics, perhaps what we lose with the decline of collective belief more than anything is this notion of radical love, one that extends beyond identity politics or civic obligation. As I consider the generational decline of organized religion, I imagine the good collective faith can still achieve. These days, when I participate in a climate march or donate money to organizations like the Trans Women of Color Collective, I do so as much out of religious obligation as a political one. Beyond a tendency toward compassion and empathy, religion has ingrained in me the notion that I am indeed my brothers keeper; that anothers well-being is inextricably bound up with my own.

I think often of that morning 17 years ago, waiting alongside my mother and sisters at the doors of the church, standing in the need of more than prayer. That day I came to know the God of Love only through the Love of God, a love that was extended by strangers beholden to me only by a system of collective belief. If anything has the potential to Save the Soul of America, surely that love can.

Bianca Vivion Brooks is a writer based in Harlem.

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To Take on the Religious Right, We Need a Religious Left - The New York Times

I Love the Bones of You: My Father and the Making of Meby Christopher EcclestonSimon & Schuster, 20

Christopher Eccleston is well known for his portrayal of complex and often marginalised characters, and this account of his life and career to date sheds some light on the philosophy behind his particular acting craft. Eccleston bills the book as an exploration of an essentially ordinary yet truly extraordinary man in the figure of his father, and the impact this man had on his life, his values and his character. Deeply personal revelations and insights resonate throughout the book, with Eccleston commenting in depth on his struggles with anorexia and mental health issues. A celebration of the particular in the universal, written in an accessible, conversational style, Eccleston has produced a haunting meditation on identity, fatherhood, and the interconnectedness that both oppresses and saves us. Becky Long

The Sea Cloak and Other Storiesby Nayrouz QarmoutComma Press, 9.99

These stories give insights into life in Gaza, without melodrama or exaggeration, and in language that is clear and rich. They tell of ordinary lives, mainly those of women, lived in one of the most volatile places on Earth. Stories such as The Sea Cloak, The Long Braid and Breastfeeding convey the struggle of girls and women to assert themselves against the restraints parents and conservative teachers would impose on them. Black Grapes shows the vicious racism of an Israeli illegal settler and his utter indifference to a Palestinian life. White Lilies is a powerful and shocking story involving a drone killing and the maiming of a little girl the callous brutality is heartrending. But this book isnt about victims; its about the triumph of managing to live in appalling circumstances. Brian Maye

Resist! How to be an Activist in the Age of Defianceby Michael SegalovHuck, 14.99

Here is a very timely book a sort of Protest For Dummies. From the first chapter, titled Bash Down Doors about identifying who has the power to affect change re the issue you are protesting this book covers all bases in your campaign efforts. Its one part PR and marketing, one part legal advice, one part nuts and bolts of protest (meeting points, post-action debriefing, protest paraphernalia: banners, placards etc) and one part protest pep talk: Respond to accusations by stating that the right to protest is at the heart of any democracy. There are many excellent case studies of successful campaigns from around the world (eg Black Lives Matter) that provide both practical information and inspiration. Succinct content and excellent graphics. Kevin Gildea

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Browser: Christopher Eccleston offers a haunting meditation on fatherhood - The Irish Times

A newly-installed black marble anti-abortion monument in Belleville Cemetery has received strong reactions both for and against across Canada. DEREK BALDWINjpg, BI

The Belleville, Ont. Chapter of the Knights of Columbus have garnered recognition both good and bad after the Catholic fraternal organization chose to erect a gravestone-like monument at St. James Cemetery in memory of all victims of abortion.

The monument that was erected on Nov. 2 is inscribed with the phrases, life is sacred and unborn lives matter as well as an image of a fetus in the womb and a verse from the book of Jeremiah.

The headstone-like monument is beautifully polished and is visually well done and appealing; however, it is the purpose and the inscription that causes such a stirring of emotions and reaction from people.

The topic of abortion is a painful dilemma for those who have found themselves in that position, as well as a very personal and private one.

I tend to sit on the fence with the opinion that what others do in their personal lives is none of my business, but I cant personally imagine being in that type of predicament and then having it thrown in my face as a shameful act.

Because grief is already a complicated emotion the last thing women need to feel is shame for the act of choosing what to do with their own bodies.

Perhaps that is what makes the monument such a controversial piece, not only is it a political statement in a church cemetery but it was also erected by a fraternity of all men whove never had to be placed in the position of making a decision on whether to choose to abort or not.

This monuments message isnt in line with the direction that womens rights and reproductive rights have continued to fight for and the fact it was erected in our very own small community just makes the issue that much more unimaginable.

Theyve put us on the map for such a personal and behind closed doors matter that it doesnt seem appropriate, especially when we already have a high amount of teen pregnancies in our community.

But it is also important to acknowledge the fact the Knights of Columbus is trying to invoke and mimic the popular movement of Black Lives Matter by stating that unborn lives matter.

The two issues are nothing alike and the way they chose to grasp at straws by trying to invoke the same amount of steam and support as #BlackLivesMatter is a blatant disregard for the actual fact that police brutality against minority groups is a tragedy being faced far too often and needlessly ends far too many lives.

The Knights of Columbus could have just as easily used the money to hold support classes to inform and protect against unwanted pregnancy and abstinence or helping support womens health and supporting the children already here and having problems with getting the appropriate nourishment before and after school.

The money and dedication they put into this monument could have just as easily gone to support other organizations that have a better handle on the issues facing people in our community that would have just as easily given them the same amount of recognition and would better serve them as a group than what theyve already done.

They cant take it back, but they really should be contributing to the conversation as to why they chose this type of monument as opposed to supporting the community in an outlet that would garner them recognition for only good rather than the mixed reactions theyve currently received.

The one blessing with the monument is perhaps it is out of sight for a lot of people and has to be sought out in order to see it, but even then it really shouldnt have been erected in the first place.

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JESSICA LAWS: Money on monument could have been better used - Belleville Intelligencer

Photo by Courtesy of Imani Johnson | The Daily Targum

Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, spoke to Rutgers students alongside other Mothers of the Movement to share how she turned her loss into social action.

On Nov. 14, the mothers of the Black Lives Matter movement walked into Voorhees Chapel to a standing ovation from a crowd of students, faculty, administrators and guests. The 10 women were hosted by Douglass Residential College (DRC) and participated as panelists in Thursdays social justice teach-in.

Mothers of the Movement is a group of Black women whose children have been killed by gun violence and police brutality. The deaths of their children have led to national outcry from movements like Black Lives Matter.

One in 1,000 unarmed African American men and boys will be killed by police in our country this year, said Dr. Elizabeth Gunn, the associate dean of academic programs at DRC. Todays event is a special occasion and an educational gathering for civil and dignified conversation.

Each of the mothers was first asked to share something about their son that was not represented by the media. Many shared the dreams of their sons, ranging from playing college football to working as a corrections officer, as well as their relationships with their family and community.

Coming up this year, on Nov. 27, will be 20 years since (Gary Hopkins Jr.) was murdered in 1999 by a Prince Georges County (Maryland) police officer, said Marion Gray-Hopkins, mother of Gary Hopkins Jr. What you didnt know about Gary was that he was a brother, the youngest of four, a mentor to his peer group. He loved to write, he was a poet, he was a writer, he was a rapper, or so he liked to think.

Gunn asked the panelists how they were able to persist through their grief and work toward social justice.

I would like to give my admiration to the ladies that are sitting on this stage that reached out to me, said Montye Benjamin, mother of Jayvis Benjamin, who was killed by a police officer in Georgia in 2013. Everyone here has been constant encouragement. I stayed kind of in my shell for a while, but I realized this issue was bigger than myself as well as my son.

Kadi Diallo is the mother of Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea killed by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in 1999. She said she had to travel across the world when her tragedy hit her and said she was motivated to make sure her son had not died in vain.

Eric Garner was also killed by an NYPD officer. His mother, Gwen Carr, said she was in a dark place after the death of her son and did not even want to get out of bed. Being a religious person, she said she started praying and found her motivation.

The media will demonize your child, the police department will criminalize your child. So they assassinate your child twice. First they murder him, then they assassinate him in the papers. But I decided to get up and turn my mourning into a movement and my sorrow into a strategy, she said.

Gray-Hopkins co-founded the Coalition for Concerned Mothers to help mentor those who are experiencing similar tragedies.

None of us want to be a part of this club that were a part of, but it gives me motivation, she said. By mentoring someone else, Im really mentoring myself and its helping me and healing me.

I had to go from bitter to better, said Greta Carter-Willis, mother of 14-year-old police brutality victim Kevin Cooper. As we continue to come in space such as this, we can share our stories, then you can go forth and become doctors and lawyers and judges. You can change it and turn around and make this a better society for all of us living together, loving on one another.

Were here today, Im here today, because there is a fight within me to ensure that the justice system is changed. And its up to you to take a stand when you see injustice. Dont just turn away from it, but fight to ensure that injustice is made right. I am going to continue to fight all the days of my life, said Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant, who was shot by a police officer in Oakland in 2009.

Several questions were taken from the audience asking the panelists about systemic changes that made them hopeful, the right age to start talking to children of color about police brutality and racism and what students could do to support the movement.

Johnson encouraged students to vote and serve as jurors, while Gray-Hopkins said it was important to have difficult conversations about race. She said that white students especially could use their white privilege to lift the voices of others. Others mentioned legislation that would be introduced in Congress, such as the Peace Act.

Benjamin said she spoke to her children about racism and police brutality when they were 7 years old.

You dont have to look for trouble, trouble will find you, Benjamin said she told her kids.

A number of the mothers also said that they had family members and close friends in law enforcement.

We are not anti-police, Carr said. We are anti-brutality.

Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, had remained quiet during the event and an audience member passed a note up to the stage which Gunn read aloud.

Lesley McSpadden. We love you, we see you. Your presence here is very powerful, she said.

Today, many of the mothers are retired, many spend time with their families in their free time and all continue to fight for their sons.

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Mothers of the Movement speak at Douglass Residential College - RU Daily Targum