Watch Us Rise(55)

Isaac writes: I do solemnly swear to blow up as an artist—make art that matters.

And I write: I resolve to say what I want, when I want, to whomever I want. My messages will be heard. I resolve to speak louder and longer, make my voice bigger and stronger. I resolve to be ocean and sky. Revolving. I resolve to show up, show off, show out—stay later, love harder, be there when it matters. I resolve to be a woman who wins.

“Whoa,” Isaac says after we read them all out loud. “I like these.”

“I love them,” Jasmine says quietly, hugging her paper to her chest. “I think I needed tonight. Thanks, guys.” We all pile on top of her to hug. Jasmine looks at the paper again. “Isaac, do you think you could do some quick sketches on these resolutions?”

“What do you mean?”

“Something that represents women,” Jasmine says, pulling out her phone.

“Oh yeah, what about the Venus symbol for the female sex?” Nadine asks, pulling an image up on her phone now. “Oh, I like the Venus symbol where the middle section is a fist. That’s so cool.”

We start to compare notes. We find a heart with the words: “Women + Power + Rights,” and then a scale with the Venus and Mars symbols and a big equals sign. We find a symbol with “Proud Feminist” written inside it. Isaac starts to sketch. He changes it to Womanist & Feminist Rights!





And then he makes a Wonder Woman symbol with the words: “I Resolve to Show Off My Superpowers.” Then we all start drawing and writing resolutions.





We start Jasmine’s playlist from the beginning, and I pull out all my art supplies. I write: Women—join us. Resolve to stand up against sexism, and Women Make All the Difference. We find the We Can Do It poster with Rosie the Riveter, and then see a bunch where black women and Latinas are shown, so Isaac sketches all our faces and writes beneath it: All of Us Can Do It and Do It Well. We write: The Future Is Female, and he sketches faces all around it on a small sheet of paper.

On my last piece of paper, I write, Down with the Patriarchy in cursive handwriting. “I think I’ll hand this to Principal Hayes personally,” I say, and start to laugh hysterically. Maybe it’s all the Coke and candy, or maybe I just feel free and wild, and like we’re about to do something a little dangerous.

“Wait, what are we gonna do with these?” Isaac asks, sitting back to look at all the scraps of paper lying on the floor.

“I have an idea,” Jasmine says, holding up a paper that reads, I resolve to protest and rage like a girl.





Everyone stays until almost two a.m. Once they’re gone, I check my phone and see two missed calls from James and four text messages.

Party @ my place.

Come over.

Where you at??

Happy New Year!



I smile, knowing he was thinking of me, and write back:

Happy New Year to you too. To all new things.





“What do you mean, put them everywhere?” I ask.

“I mean, don’t leave any space untouched. Put. Them. Everywhere. Books in the library, textbooks, slip them inside lockers, leave them in bathrooms—any spaces you can find, we gotta make sure people see them everywhere they turn. We have to stay on people’s minds,” Jasmine says. She looks through her backpack and pulls the bag of quotes and statements out to examine them. A couple of days later, after we made our “I resolve” statements, we photocopied our favorite ones so that by the time school started we’d have hundreds that we could work with.

“You sure about this?” Isaac asks. “I mean, I can understand posting them in books and stuff, but I just don’t really want to get detention for posting Down with the Patriarchy in the teachers’ lounge.”

“Stop being so weak,” I say, siding with Jasmine, “and besides, I took that one out. I replaced it with The Patriarchy Is Dead. That’s better, right? It’s kinder.” I smile.

Isaac stares at me. “I know you all want to do this, but maybe we can make a bigger statement at Word Up, and post there . . .”

“Nope,” I say, “it has to be bigger than that. We can’t just keep posting in places where everyone already believes what we’re trying to say. We’ve got to bring more awareness of the things that need to change here at Amsterdam Heights.”

Isaac still looks unsure.

“You’ve already done enough, Isaac. You helped us make these look so good. We’ve got it from here. I mean it,” Jasmine says, taking the bag of statements and handing it to Nadine, who is standing next to us and pulling out her favorite statements, figuring out the best places to post them.

Isaac surveys the hallway. We all have after-school commitments in a half hour, but that means if we work fast enough, we can cover a ton of ground. “No. I’m in it now. Let’s do this,” he says, and grabs the bag back from Nadine.

The four of us take off like a crew of womanist/feminist superheroes leaving our mini forms of justice all over the school campus. We all split up. Jasmine and I tackle the locker rooms, bathrooms, and the theater. But before we get there, I have a stop to make.

“Where are we going?” Jasmine asks. “We gotta hurry.”

“I know, but I have a special poem for a special someone,” I say, moving ahead.