Opening Skit - MHYSA

Won’t you celebrate with me what I have shaped into a kind of life?

I had no model

Born in Babylon, both black and woman

What did I seek to be except myself?

I made it up

Here on this bridge, between star shine and clay

My one hand holding tight my other hand

Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has

failed

Lucille Clifton, 1993