For Joyce Adejumo proprietor of Mitchie's and just all around great Human Being. Rest in peace, great mother/great friend/great advocate. RISE in Power, great Ancestor, venerable elder/ancestor of the human race.
The first time she smiled at me, I melted from the sheer welcome
of her grin; she was like that--able to melt you, make you feel welcome
give you space to create--on the spot, or in your life--
because she was more than a patron or art dealer
she was art herself, flowing like dance/rhyming like poem
she made everywhere she ever was more beautiful
it reflected her and her generosity and the way she
mediated God/conjured joy/made life seem possible
no matter how hard--she was, after all the mother of a
son paralyzed because a drunk driver was behind a wheel
she figured out faith on the fly; taught us all how to
step into our skin, take our place; she demanded by her
own life that we change what part of the world we could
even if it were just the corner in your living room, the
thinking in your own mind. She was like that--able to
challenge your ideas about limits, about what you could
or could not do. And then, she demanded it show up
in your life as art. I miss her already
© Valerie Bridgeman
May 28, 2013
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