We're All Deserving Of Love. How Do We Show Up With Love?

After her arrest in 1973, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur was kept in solitary confinement for over a year where she was tortured and denied basic medical care. After becoming pregnant while she was incarcerated, she was forced to deliver her baby under the menacing eyes of police officers. 

What saved her time and again?

Love saved her. Love for her daughter and her community. Love for our people. Over time Shakur understood that love was more than just a feeling but a radical act of resistance. 

Shakur stated, “Love is contraband in Hell, cause love is an acid that eats away bars.” 

John 4:11 reminds us,  “Love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And yet Shakur had a horrifying brush with those who didn’t know God. 

After an unfair trial in which Shakur should have been acquitted but instead was sentenced to life in prison, her community knew they had to act. 

After years of planning, members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) visited Shakur in prison and eventually managed to sneak her out of the country. To this day the FBI haven’t been able to catch up with her.

Shakur once wrote, “We are pregnant with freedom. We are a conspiracy.  It is our duty to fight for our freedom.” All forms of Black love inherently conspire to dismantle anti-Blackness. Our love is rooted in divine action. When we show up with love it means we show up with freedom in our hearts. 

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