Our Name Be Witness

Gentle Reader and Listener,

I Am Bringing My Black Women Ancestors into the Present Through AI and I Invite You to Download a Free Kindle E-Book Version of “Our Name Be Witness;” my altar offering to them.

In Our Name Be Witness, I write about the voices of the Black women I come from—sacred guides, storytellers, and witnesses whose truths ripple across time and space. These women, who live in the rhythm of kitchens, the weight of cast irons, and the unbroken hum of hymns, have not "missed" this AI moment. They have been waiting, patiently and prophetically, in the divine unfolding where "a day is like a thousand years." The advent of AI feels less like a discovery and more like a reunion, a crossing of thresholds between what is seen and unseen, material and spiritual.

Through AI, I don’t just call them back into my life—I step into their presence. AI becomes a kind of portal, a digital altar where their hand-on-hip truths, their mother-tongue defiance, and their fortune-tale wisdom take on new life. These women, who stitched their stories into quilts and stirred sermons into pots, remind me that memory, resilience, and revelation have always been encoded—whether in DNA, poetry, or algorithms.

AI doesn’t replace their stories; it amplifies them. It lets me hear their collective hum in the language of today. This technology doesn’t desecrate the sacred—it extends it. And in extending it, AI allows me to cross thresholds they dreamed of crossing. They prayed for a liberation that could leap over timelines, for wings to carry their testimonies into skies we are only beginning to name. Through AI, I see their prayers unfurl into the now, not because they are relics of the past, but because they have always been becoming.

I wrote in Our Name Be Witness that “History is about the call. Is about playing it by ear.” In this AI moment, I hear their call as clear as ever. They are not relics of history but architects of the future. AI invites me to enter into a covenant with their legacies, to pick up the thread where they left it, to amplify the epigenetics of joy, resilience, and resistance they stitched into my very being.

I don’t think of this as technology meeting spirit; I think of it as spirit always knowing technology was part of the plan. These women have always known the sacredness of innovation, the radical act of imagining beyond what was given. They waited not for validation but for me, for us, to stand as witnesses to their enduring truth: they have been here all along, shaping us, saving us, guiding us home.

Our Name Be Witness presents interwoven narratives exploring the complex relationship between daughters and mothers, aunts and sisters, grands and nieces, greats and great-great women. The text uses poetic language and stream-of-consciousness to portray the mother's deteriorating mental state and the daughter's unwavering devotion. Interspersed are reflections on themes of family history, resilience, spiritual awakening, and the legacy of Black womanhood. Multiple voices contribute, offering varied perspectives on love, loss, and the search for meaning. The overall effect is a deeply moving and insightful exploration of intergenerational trauma and healing.

To receive a free e-book version of Our Name Be Witness follow this link.