On Saturday, June 12, University of California Santa Cruz hosted its 30th annual Black Grad Celebration. The virtual space was intentional, vibrant, and crafted with care. I was invited to give a faculty keynote, and I can’t express how meaningful it was to both witness the graduation and be part of the ceremony. Congratulations again students, and onward! Shout out to students who nominated me for the keynote (gratitude) and to the African American Resource and Cultural Center for the work you to do and the spaces you continue to create on campus - and beyond.

Here are the three pieces of advice/consejos from the keynote, drawn from the transcript:

1) Keep your ancestors close:

My first offering is to keep your ancestors close. When I was a first-generation college and graduate student, as a Black and Blaxicana, and graduated in 2003 with my BA as an undergrad, I was still really beginning this journey with the ancestors. When I'm talking about ancestors, I don't just mean being able to trace a name, to certain kinfolk. Because let's be real. A lot of us can't do that. Right? A lot of us in the black diaspora can't do that. So, really paying attention to ancestors in other forms.

2) Honor the crossroads:

My second offering for you is to pay attention to those crossroads, and really allow yourself to navigate them and be with them. The crossroads, this transition moment is a crossroads. Right? You've had so many uncertainties and different moments that you've been navigating over the past year, no doubt, and even beyond during your undergraduate experience. Those are also crossroads. Crossroads are times when there may be decisions to made . . .

3) Reimagine success, and choose a symbol
My third guidance is about choosing a symbol for success that makes sense to you. One of the reasons I keep meditating with the crossroads as a symbol is because it is such an important ancestral symbol, in terms of the black diaspora, in terms of global indigenous earth based practice and spirituality. And at the same time, it also very much speaks to those transitions, but it does more than that . . .

One reason I suggest [choosing a symbol], is because we need to undo and dismantle certain ways in which success is talked about. Because it tends to be hierarchical, tends to be linear, like you do this, you do this, you rise up, you rise up the ranks, you do that.

Let's re-imagine that together, because life doesn't often happen that way, for one. And number two, because hierarchies have not served us globally, us black community, they have not served us in healing ways, in general…

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Resources + readings

• For more about Black Grad and AARC visit the website.

• On crossroads, here’s a related article by Naya: At a Planetary Crossroads: Contemplative Wisdom of Black Geographies.

• For more on ancestor work, the writing and art of M. Jacqui Alexander, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Omi Osun Jones come to mind. More on the bookshelf.