Letter to Dr. Mae C. Jemison

Your Ted Talk, Twenty years ago, remains relevant today

Dear Dr. Jemison (Mae)

How goes it?

To begin, I have a crush on you. It has been there a while now. Not a crush like I want to meet you and go on dates but a crush of excellence and appreciation from afar.

I know you inspire young people these days but back in the day, you inspired me. I have followed you since college when you became an astronaut and when I got to law school, and you went into space, the first African American woman in space, I was truly blown away.

You were beautiful, charming, classy, and intelligent, and you were showcasing it before the world and you were confident, always.

Of course, it mattered to a young Black man such as myself from Washington D.C. that you were an African American woman like my mother and grandmother and so many other women who I respected. You were part of the tradition of women that held the African American community together.

You did it all too. Entered college at 16; graduated from Stanford University in Chemical Engineering and African and African American Studies; did international humanitarian work while in Medical School at Cornell, completed a medical residency, then joined the Peace Corps. This is that serious work, for a serious person.

But my crush didn’t end with just your personal achievements. It has crystallized to a certain degree as I learned more about your life journey. After law school, when the digital world began expanding, I saw a Ted Talk you gave in February 2002 where you spoke about the arts and the sciences. You were using the platform to push an idea I always have embraced and was trying to live.

You talked about how there was a need to master and promote both of these disciplines in society. That talk has forever stuck with me and is part of my crush.

In 2002, I was a poet with two books and I was also a public interest lawyer. I had been repeatedly told that the two disciplines — law and literature — do not go together. I needed to choose one I was told and I simply refused. Science (social science) or Art?

It is good I ignored such chatter from certain people and listened to myself.

And that’s where your Ted Talk was important to me.

You actually quoted the late Franz Fanon to say something really cool about art and science. Here it is:

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill or betray it.” (Fanon)

That quote moves me to this day. I have always felt that each generation must make a difference in the world. I still feel connected to my generation and our mission to fight racism, economic inequality, hate, and most of all, accept a call to service for the greater good.

I know now that the movement of humanity towards being better is a process. So, I feel good about the efforts of my generation. I just tell generations behind me now to embrace the causes of your generations and don’t let it be — chasing the dollar.

I also like what you said after that as well about yourself. How you embraced the moment and all of it, the arts and the sciences:

“…I always assumed I would go into space, because I followed all of this. But I also loved the arts and sciences. You see, when I was growing up as a little girl and as a teenager, I loved designing and making doll clothes and wanting to be a fashion designer. I took art and ceramics. I loved dance: Lola Falana, Alvin Ailey, Jerome Robbins. And I also avidly followed the Gemini and the Apollo programs. I had science projects and tons of astronomy books. I took calculus and philosophy.”(Jemison)

And then you talked about when you went into space in 1992. How you took a poster of Judith Jamison, of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, performing a dance called “Cry,” a Bundu statue from a women’s society in Sierra Leone, and a certificate for children in the Chicago public schools to work harder on science and math. That is a statement in itself.

Like me, you believe science and art, and art and science can go together, and they are both about human creativity, the thing that sustains the world. And like me, you spoke about them in that talk about how there was an effort at the time to gut arts programs (and this did happen and still happens). So many people in my circle appreciate both the arts and the sciences. I would have it no other way.

Yet, those of us who consider ourselves artists (I am a poet, so count me in), are aware that art is what reminds us that we are human beings. Whenever you see a lot of art being celebrated and supported, you see the kind of community that is chasing beauty and love in the world with passion.

I do hope you keep up your great work and will keep pushing that message. I am happy with my long crush and celebrating you from afar as you continue to do amazing things.

Peace.

Dr. Mae Jemison’s Ted Talk 2002

Dr. Mae C. Jemison podcast with John Stewart

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