August is a significant month in many of our lives for a myriad reasons. For some, we’re preparing for the start of school—choosing the best ‘fit, deciding how deep we want the side part to be or wondering how we’ll deal with that clique of girls we somehow avoided online but now we’ll be seeing face to face. There are others preparing for school but doing it on another end of the spectrum by prepping syllabi, budgeting for those just-right outfits and figuring out how to life in the middle of school. Then there’s the time set aside to celebrate freedom fighters past and present, Black August. In August 1979, to observe the death and murder, respectively, of political prisoners Khatari Gaulden (August 1, 1978) and George Jackson (August 21, 1971), incarcerated people at San Quentin State Prison didn’t eat or between sunup and sundown. Since this time 43 years ago, Black August observations have grown beyond carceral walls and serve as their own means conduit of public education and civic engagement, particularly for disenfranchised and marginalized groups. So we’re going Black to School this month. See you there.
Oh, and August 4 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day so you know what to do.