On Wednesday, we misplaced among the best of us: Denise Oliver Velez.
I make my dwelling writing phrases, and but I’m at a loss.
There’s a giant gap inside me. I can really feel it, nearly see it.
However as I’ve sat with that grief, I’ve realized one thing sudden. Our beloved Denise could also be gone, however in some way, she additionally isn’t.
For literal a long time, each tough determination concerning the route of Every day Kos has included the identical query: What’s Denise going to consider this? Denise has been the voice at the back of my thoughts—advising me, guiding me, oftentimes scolding me. If I used to be going to disregard what I knew Denise would inform me, I had higher have a rattling good motive.
The depth of her expertise gave her a degree of knowledge that’s nearly unfathomable. As Onomastic wrote so completely, “How do you shrink the lifetime of a lifelong activist—a member of The Younger Lords and Black Panthers, a superb author, an editor, a musicologist, a Cultural Anthropologist, a Priestess of Yemaya within the Afro-Cuban Lucumi Orisha custom, a paradigm breaker and shaper—to suit onto a web page?”
How fortunate I used to be to attract from that huge retailer of expertise, solid in battles most of us know solely via historical past books.
What that have gave Denise was one thing uncommon: ethical readability. She knew who she was. She knew what she believed. And she or he by no means hesitated to inform me—or anybody else—when she thought we’d gotten it mistaken.
I’ll not have at all times been thrilled to listen to it. However I used to be at all times grateful.
I do know I wasn’t alone. The group knew that facet of Denise, too. She may very well be relentless in an argument. She may ruffle feathers. However her convictions had been by no means performative. They had been earned over a lifetime spent combating for justice, and he or she anticipated the remainder of us to stay as much as those self same requirements.
That’s why we had been so fortunate that she selected to spend a lot of her extraordinary life right here. She didn’t simply take part on this group. She helped form it. She challenged it. She by no means stopped insisting that we turn into a greater model of ourselves.
We could have misplaced Denise. However that voice that has guided me for thus lengthy? That isn’t going anyplace. It by no means will.
If something, I think I’ll hear it much more clearly now.
Relaxation in peace, beloved Denise. There’ll by no means be one other such as you.
Denise’s household has arrange a GoFundMe to help with funeral prices and assist her husband Nadhiyr throughout this transition. To donate, click on right here.
We’ll get straight to the purpose: The monetary hardships that Every day Kos is going through this yr are powerful.
We proceed to be paywall-free. We proceed to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or companies. However we have to carry in additional income. We’re leaning on our group greater than ever to assist make ends meet.
