On The Meaning of “Grand”: Happy Birthday Grandma
“my grand mother. willa mae wilson. conduit. conductor. leader of my underground railroad. under ground because black women of a certain era and age are presumed to not know thing, to know no things, to know nothing at all when in truth, they know the universe and the soul and the flesh and the heart and the mind better than any geographer. in fact. great geography is black geography and better geography is blaqueer geography and black mother geography is perhaps the most studied and exceptional and precise of them all, not because gender but because experience of reaching beyond self to pull out, push out, love out and foster life…is a journey not all can make, handle, desire, sustain, contain. she is not just a mother, but a grand mother, because after 6 births and several nieces and nephews and cousins raised, she reared and brother and sisters at times and always my cousins…because her grandeur was a gift she couldn’t help but give because black mother geographers know a little something about the great beyond, what lies there and what it takes to arrive at this place called wholeness, peace and…beyond survival…a thriving and a bliss and a space of contentment and reconstitution.”