May Day 2021
It’s May Day
In honor of my mother, Delores J. Rolle
who was a UAW union member and leader for most of her life
who fought for worker rights for decades
who taught me that you don’t work for cash, you work for benefits
whose fight for benefits is the reason I was able to smile with these pearly whites, these “Union Teeth”
It’s May Day
In honor of my father, Rev. Everette Rolle
who was a peculiar mix of Pentacostal, and worker advocate and political advisor
who chose to evolve with God as he continued in his ministry
who loved on and encouraged my fellow justice workers, even when they didn’t share his faith traditions or worldview
who stood up to injustice in the workplace
who faced down and diffused white racist violence in the backwoods of Florida as an migrant worker
who had to travel with the international equivalent of “walking papers” while doing back breaking labor to improve this land
It’s May Day
and in honor of this legacy
I spent the day in a church
Helping to form a coalition
based on love and power and faith and healing
based on the values of worker movements
and populist movements
and the values of my own working class family.
In honor of this lineage,
people who dared to do the work of imagining and realizing justice and love
even after their own labor had been exploited,
is still being exploited.
In honor of their work
of daring to dream and daring to do
I showed up as my full self and God held me
and then carried me forward.
Its May Day
And I’m not my ancestor’s wildest dreams.
I am their blueprint, made flesh in this time.
I am a daughter of the movement and a child of God.