“Breonna Taylor” has become synonymous with no-knock warrants, unjust court rulings, and the “hidden in plain sight” legalized violence too often bestowed upon Black women. However, her mother, Tamika Palmer says “we already know that story…what’s new?” She beamed so radiantly when sharing about Breonna’s favorite foods, visionary mindset, and “old soul” in our recent interview. With Tamika now attached to our project, “Forget-Me-Not,” this blog is a preview of the fullness with which we will portray the five Black women whose lives were cut short by unjust policing—including Valarie Carey’s sister, Miriam—in our African Burial Ground National Monument-centered docuseries.
The thing about Breonna is she had set out to change the world by the age of twenty-six. “She was a planner…and put that on her vision board for her twenty-sixth birthday,” Tamika recalls, proudly displaying Breonna’s poster board. Breonna aka “Nana Taylor” carefully pasted “I feel it’s important to make a mark somewhere,” and should have been executing her plans to finish nursing school, buy a house and start a family that year, instead of being executed on March 13, 2020. Her penchant for planning and “old soul” were inherited from her grandmother, Juanita Palmer, who had a large hand in raising Breonna, a baby Tamika birthed at the tender age of sixteen.
The family took particular note of Breonna’s “young-old” self at a Christmas gathering when she was three years old. Upon receiving the microphone for karaoke, “Nana” fervently requested and belted out, “Last Two Dollars,” a nineties blues hit from Johnnie Taylor. Breonna’s favorite songs and spicy foods will be bottomless at today’s cookout celebrating her thirty-second heavenly birthday. No cake though, “Breonna didn’t like cake…we already put the order in for a cookie cake.” Whether charting her life path or planning her meals, Breonna was a woman who knew what she wanted and put her mind to achieving it, but also helped others along the way.
“Bossy, focused, [and] too caring,” is how Tamika summed up her first-born—nicknamed “Easy Breezy” because of her lifelong, unproblematic nature. Yet and still, Tamika has not had a chance to grieve. Thrust into the movement, at the start of the pandemic nonetheless, Tamika was stumped by Sybrina Fulton’s, Trayvon Martin’s mother’s, question: “What do you like to do?”. It “felt selfish if I didn’t want to fight today, or tell the story today, or breathe that day.” However, Tamika has since heeded Sybrina’s counsel that “whatever it is, take time to do those things…before you became Breonna Taylor’s mom, you were Tamika Palmer…it’s okay to steal those moments back.”
Despite Easy Breezy no longer being her road-dog at bike club meetings, Tamika has resumed her favorite pastime of motorcycling, and safeguards her mental health by taking each day as it comes. While still being pulled in a hundred different directions because “what happened to Breonna is still happening,” Tamika tunes in to her mother’s, Juanita’s, ancestral voice echoing in her mind, “you’re stronger than all of us…we’re following you.” Along with fellow name-twin Tamika Mallory’s organization, Until Freedom, and the #SayHerName network, Tamika Palmer’s village—both ancestral and earthly—supports her in being “where I need to be and for whom I need to be there for.”
“People uplifted me, [so] I’m doing my part to uplift another mother.” The indomitable strength emanating from Tamika was as astounding as her delicacy and need for immersive time and space to mourn her daughter. Currently grieving my likewise Gemini bestie (R.I.P. cousin Jean, pictured with my mother), I cannot fathom the heartbreak of losing family due to such senseless tragedy. I am impassioned to facilitate and document “Forget-Me-Not” families’ visits to African Burial Ground National Monument, not only because they deserve to fully grieve, but also to feel the senses of belonging and healing intrinsic to a site where ancestors also had little to no time to mourn, and—like Tamika—still made a way to bury loved ones with reverence.
“Breonna was my best friend, we grew up together…I don’t know anyone who didn’t love her…her smile lit up a room.” If Tamika’s smile is any indicator, I could only imagine how bright Breonna’s would have been today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BREONNA!!!
