Dear Fellow Warrior,
As we approach the end of the year, there is so much I wish to have accomplished and so much I wish to have shared on this blog.
But if there is anything I could do before the end of the year, it would be to honor the year with the authenticity of what it symbolized for both me, and for millions of people in America and around the world.
I revised my poem, “The Invisible Revolutionary,” after receiving a rejection earlier this month, upon sharing this piece this past August. I resubmitted it to another magazine after just a few additions and revisions and would like to share this revised version here for the time being, as I may not hear back until the new year and because I hope to perform this today on Christmas Eve, as I return “home” to Busboys and Poets for some Open mic poetry. I will be sure to update this post with the video recording of the performance, if I can secure a spot and share it! I have been feeling depressed and unwell for a long time, but I will try to muster up some courage to share this one.
Below is the revised context I resubmitted for another magazine. Should it be accepted, I will be sure to share the link here as well. The featured painting above, also entitled, “The Invisible Revolutionary,” is connected to this poem and also submitted with the poem. I am very proud of that painting as well.
I am still working on my “masterpieces,” but I will consider this my “2024 Masterpiece.” I would be honored to have my poem and painting published sometime in the new year if not the end of this year. But I will still cherish it as a self-published piece if it doesn’t get published elsewhere. I needed to resubmit this somewhere and here, in my own space and platform and before the end of the year, because I firmly believe that 2024 was the year of “The Invisible Revolutionary”…
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The Invisible Revolutionary is a tribute to all the silenced voices in the plight for a Free Palestine. These are the hidden, lost, or unheard voices fighting for social justice and change, during times of oppression, suppression, and great crisis.
For nearly 15 months, many who stood with the Palestinian resistance encountered hatred, online trolling, shadow-banning, social and professional exclusion, termination, cancellation, bullying, and silencing both online and offline in their advocacy for a liberated Palestine. This suppression of the fundamental freedoms has transpired in America, more than ever before, upon the recent escalation of violence, conflict, and genocide in the Middle East.
The Invisible Revolutionary was inspired from a personal experience. I arrived on a rainy afternoon, at Freedom Plaza, in downtown Washington, DC, on March 9, 2024, for a Palestine Solidarity March, which was actually scheduled the day earlier at that venue, for International Woman’s Day.
In this moment of solitude, the plaza, once the site of the largest mass mobilization in the United States for Palestinian freedom and human rights (Jan 13, 2024), with a record number of 400,000 Americans from acrossthe United States, symbolized the alienation, isolation, and marginalization many Americans endured in their activism for Palestine the past year.
Despite the rise in international solidarity, I too have found myself at times on my own the past year, embodying an “Invisible Revolutionary.” I believe many others can resonate with this struggle of alienation as well. This poem captures that experience—a dedication to both the silent and the loud resistance. We continue marching even if it means having to stand alone at times.
I hope this art resonates with anyone who has ever felt marginalized or silenced in their advocacy and activism. The poem is a manifestation of the personal sacrifices and cost of resistance and the resilience required to continue fighting, even when it feels like no one is listening. Ultimately, we are never alone when we truly embrace “revolutionary love.”
I will remember 2024 as the year of The Invisible Revolutionary in America, as the resilience and resistance move forward.
The featured acrylic abstract painting represents many details from the poem, including a lone female figure in a square within a stormy background. The shape that envelops her serves multiple symbolic references: a crown, connecting to her keffiyeh hijab as a force field, a rainbow of the colors of the Palestinian flag as an after-rain effect, and a crescent moon to symbolize her faith in Allah. The gold and burgundy metallic paint in dot mandala style that elegantly surrounds the crescent, rainbow, and crown, as well as the border of the painting, symbolizes the celebratory and hopeful moment of a new year for resistance.
In these Orwellian times, (a widely cited reference in 2024 to George Orwell’s 1984), when the voices for justice are increasingly suppressed, both online and offline, The Invisible Revolutionary presents a reminder of the importance of perseverance and the enduring power and agency of the individual in the collective struggle for peace, justice, dignity and freedom.
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“The Invisible Revolutionary”
In the heart of Freedom Plaza,
in the arm of a hurricane,
an “imperfect stranger.”
you won’t know her name…
Raises her clenched fist,
in an empty arena…like a dervish in the rain.
Spinning in defiance, in devotion, in prayer, in blessing…
…In rebellion.
Closing her eyes, she hears the familiar melody.
In pursuit of a permanent remedy.
As the square transforms into Gaza.
A flashback from that time…
The Adhaan – the call to prayer,
graces her ears…
For the first time in the “city of her dreams.”
A moment inhabited by 400,000 souls,
together…shoulder to shoulder.
Marching…in Jamaat.
The largest mass protest in the history of a nation built by slaughter.
In a place, thousands of miles away, that could end a massacre.
She yearns… to stop the pain.
Spinning – to break the chains.
Dancing to the rhythm of Freedom.
Alone…But the Divine’s presence is near.
They tried…
They tried to steal the “Allahu Akbar” from her before.
Always coming after more.
She won’t let it happen this time.
Through rain, through shine,
without fail…resistance will prevail.
Just one person… among tens of thousands,
Shouting, dancing, singing, beating the drums.
Chants of freedom ascend every corner,
like an open field graced by thunder.
A power…endlessly denied,
coursing through her chest,
rippling through her veins…
electricity surging in her bones,
radiating from her toes to her head…
wrapped by a garment – the symbol of liberation.
A cloth she once called her “crown,”
grounding her, now a shield, an armor.
Keeping her chaste,
holding firm her clenched fist,
as rain streaks down her face.
Just a “face in the crowd,” this solitary visionary,
Gliding clandestinely,
her voice – an anomaly.
But listen carefully,
you will hear the call,
of a resistance rising tall.
Demanding justice, freedom for all.
Hundreds of thousands of broken hearts arise.
In synchrony… beneath the purple skies.
Hues swim, bleed, merge and blend,
into a pool of red, green, black, and white.
Symbols of the resistance.
A Banner of Emancipation,
spins in the whirlwinds,
A moment profound,
as solidarity surrounds.
Alone she marches… against the current.
Harboring a burden of dissent.
Her voice a stone.
Her identity unknown.
But the Trumpet will be blown,
and all shall be known.
Truth will rise, above the lies,
fueled by cowardice and evil eyes.
She recalls dismay from her beloved, pleading for silence.
Urging retreat, burdened with fear.
But still…in protest, in march, in poem, in paint, in post,
forging through flames with passion,
her stance – a sword embedded in stone.
From rain, she seeks cover.
Will the crown protect her?
Or vanquish her? Does it matter?
Her resolve is clear.
She stands here…without fear.
Within this Plaza of Freedom.
A desolate crusade, if only this one time.
Yet the world elevates her climb.
Scooping her into their embrace…Finally!
A welcoming community!
In the quest for justice, to earnestly belong.
No more abandoned, neglected, forgotten.
No more lost in the lonesome song.
The Invisible Revolutionary,
hidden from the screen,
in defiance of the dance of the unseen.
But Allah sees this vagabond.
In this sacred venture, battling despond.
She is aware… He is there.
Unseen in the crowd, yet bold.
Her story of resilience unfolds.
With trust in Divine justice.
Upholding the path made righteous.
The violence must end this time…This time…
Forever, onwards – an unrelenting march to Free Palestine.
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Thank you for reading, and I appreciate you giving my voice a chance. Please let me know what you think about my painting and poem, as well as what I shared about its significance at this moment in time.
In Solidarity, Salaam, Peace, Warmth, and Blessings,
Your Sister,
Dr. Elsa, Warrior KQueen
“She wasn’t looking for a Knight. She was looking for a Sword.” – Atticus
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