- Urges everyone to take a stand for emotional emancipation -

(BLACK PR WIRE) New Haven, CT—In an open letter released today, Dr. Maya Angelou, world-renowned poet, author and educator, has called on people everywhere to wear something sky blue on the third weekend of October to take a stand for “healing,” “psychological liberation” and “emotional freedom.” “We are asking everyone to Wear Sky Blue,” Dr. Angelou said, “to show our collective determination to turn the pain of the blues into the sky blue of unlimited possibilities.”

Last month, CNN released the results of a doll study showing that many children, black and white alike, are still biased in favor of white skin. Dr. Angelou pointed to the study as “yet another sign of the continuing power of the myths of white superiority and black inferiority.” She urged people to “take a stand for emotional emancipation” and “come together in one simple, but powerful, act of solidarity.” “All you have to do,” added Dr. Angelou, “is wear something light blue like the color of the sky on a bright sunny day.”

October 15, 16 and 17, 2010, will mark the third anniversary of the celebration of Community Healing Days, three days set aside on the third weekend of every October to raise awareness about the continuing effects of the myths of black inferiority and white superiority and to mobilize people to extinguish these myths—once and for all. The celebration of Community Healing Days was launched in 2008 in New Haven, CT, by the Community Healing Network, Inc. (CHN); Dr. Angelou chairs CHN’s Board of Advisors. Inspired by Dr. Angelou’s wisdom that we “take a day to heal from the lies that have been told to us, and the ones we’ve told ourselves,” CHN issued a Call to Healing and Renewal to encourage people everywhere to celebrate Community Healing Days to put “time for healing” at the top of their agendas.

“Community Healing Days and the Wear Sky Blue campaign are designed to do for the movement for emotional emancipation what Earth Day has done for the environmental movement: to put an urgent issue at the top of the world’s agenda and to spark grassroots action for fundamental change,” said CHN vice president Janice M. Jones.

According to CHN president Enola G. Aird, “CHN’s goal is to make this the decade of emotional emancipation for black people. Our aim is to bring a critical mass of black people into the movement for emotional freedom by 2019, the year that will mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans on American soil—so that we will all see ourselves in a whole new light by the year 2020.”
To learn more about the Wear Sky Blue campaign and the movement for emotional emancipation, visit www.communityhealingnet.org.