It was with great sadness that we shared the news that our beloved Women and Girls Network co-founder and Head of Training, Michelle Springer-Benjamin, passed away in May. Reflecting on her immense contribution to social justice and women’s liberation, we wish to share the following poems that capture the energy within which she moved through her life and work.

WGN

 

---

Holding and Knowing: For Michelle

 

Michelle was holding stillness in a world that never stopped.

Knowing that rest is a form of rebellion.

 

Michelle was holding fire in her chest and softness in her hands.

Knowing that power and tenderness can live side by side.

 

Michelle was holding the weight of survival with grace.

Knowing that surviving is a sacred inheritance.

 

Michelle was holding the room every time she spoke.

Knowing that her voice carried generations with it.

 

Michelle was holding the title of trainer like a calling, not a job.

Knowing that knowledge is a gift we pass down, not keep.

 

Michelle was holding her children, her grandchildren, and all of us.

Knowing that love stretches far beyond blood.

Michelle was holding laughter in her eyes and mischief in her smile.

Knowing that joy, too, is resistance.

 

Michelle was holding her head high, always.

Knowing that the world tried to bend her, and never could.

 

Michelle was holding truths many were not ready to hear.

Knowing that saying them would set others free.

 

Michelle was holding space for others to rise.

Knowing that legacy is not what you leave, but what you lift.

 

Michelle was holding so many of us in her heart.

Knowing that one day we would have to hold each other.

 

Michelle was holding light in the darkest of spaces.

Knowing that even in grief, we glow because she shined first.

 

Michelle was holding her full, unruly, beautiful self.

Knowing that she was made in the image of something divine.

 

Michelle was holding a legacy in every step.

Knowing that we are the next chapter of her story.

 

So today, we are holding silence.

Knowing that she is not gone just ahead of us, still guiding.

 

Written by Nicole Walsh (Women and Girls Network) 

---

For Michelle: Daughter of 400 Years of Voices Unheard

A Memorial Chant and Invocation for a Revolutionary Spirit

When Michelle entered a room,

The room remembered.

She moved like memory and majesty,

Royal, calm, a holder of hearts,

Laced with laughter, fierce with truth.

She didn’t raise her voice to lead,

She listened,

And the room aligned to her frequency.

A feather.

A fire.

A pulse that never rushed.

She moved like ritual.

She carried the weight and wonder

Of our lineages in her spine.

Communing with her grandmother, calling to

Unseen,

She poured Florida Water between her

Palms,

Set intention with rosewater and rhythm,

And let the scent of sage teach us what

textbooks never could.

She was storyteller, teacher, wordsmith,

Spellcaster,

Not for spectacle,

But for survival.

She taught us how to stand inside ourselves

How to speak what the world tries to swallow,

How to carry pain and possibility in the same hand.

She brought music, incense, and memory

To every space she entered.

She trained many of us,

Not just in methods, but in meaning.

She invited us to remember,

And she believed in our remembering

More fiercely the world believed in our

Erasure.

She bypassed the white colonial ways of

Working

And brought you into a world, a movement,

Where even your grief had a place at the

Table.

Michelle fought for visibility, for presence, for

Truth.

She knew that this work, this fight to end

Men’s violence against women and girls,

Was sacred. That we were sacred.

That justice, joy, and revolutionary love are

One and the same.

She believed we deserved to take up space

In central London,

In full colour,

In full strength,

In full voice.

She brought incense to the front lines.

Held the heart of Million Women Rise like a

Birthright.

She rooted in Black womanhood,

In lesbian elderhood,

In joy as resistance,

And in the rhythm of drum, earth, and

Memory.

She carried our stories like holy water, never

Spilling, always pouring.

She loved you.

She loved us.

She loved.

She loved deeply.

She loved with unwavering truth.

With purpose, power, care.

She showed up.

To the Mayor’s office.

To your living room.

To the moment of your undoing.

She stood with you by your mother’s grave

Until you were ready to walk.

She waited.

She stayed.

She held space.

Michelle believed in eldership,

In responsibility,

In the sacred role of the village.

She gave you permission to be whole.

She called herself what she truly was:

Mind. Spirit. Body

MSB.

Michelle Springer-Benjamin.

She believed in the young ones,

Trained the next generation,

Left behind maps and wisdom cards,

Cast her stories like sacred seeds,

Offered us all a chance to be found,

To be free.

She believed in us.

And now,

We gather not only to remember Michelle,

But to feel her.

In our breath.

In our bodies.

In the ache that tells us that we loved deeply.

In the silence she used to fill.

Lay your sorrow down gently.

Let it ripple through your skin.

Let it name you

And call you home.

Remember her laughter, how it lifted rooms.

How her eyes held you steady when your own

Voice trembled.

She didn’t ask for spotlight, she became it.

Lit paths with her presence, then walked

Beside you in the dark.

She is the thread between the breath and the

Blaze.

The one who knew when to speal

And when to simply stay.

She is

Kente cloth and stardust.

Wisdom cards and open skies.

Sacred songs and rebels cries.

And she is still teaching.

Still guiding.

Still blessing.

Michelle lives on,

In song,

In ritual,

And in revolutionary love.

For you:

We will rise

We will love.

We will march.

We will heal.

We will write.

We will remember.

And when we do,

We call your name

In Mind

In Spirit,

And in Body.

Power to the women,

Women got the power,

Sisters can you hear us,

Stronger by the hour,

Power, power, power.

(Written by Miss Yankey on behalf of Million Women Rise)