Love One Another, Stand for Change – Jamele Adams

Needing no introduction due to his large impact on Franklin, Jamele Adams immediately captivated his listeners when he began to recite his poem. Although he was a participant in the event, Adams also played a significant role in organizing Open Mic Night, so when I broached the idea of making it an annual show, he enthusiastically replied, “More than once a year, hopefully, this could happen once a week!“, elaborating on the fact that “the Open Mic affected everyone in this space […] Folks shared that they were absolutely moved and then at the end when people were asked to write about how they were inspired, they shared how they were inspired […] People were moved in the space. People shared their narrative because they trusted in the space, and the energy was powerful and welcoming, and warm, supportive, and filled with advocacy for love. “

Adams is also the leader of the Franklin Freedom Team – a group of advocates for inclusivity, trust, and love– so I couldn’t help but ask “What are the goals of the Freedom Team, and what is its foundation?” He responded that “the purpose of the Franklin Freedom Team is to preserve freedom through unity in the community. It came out of needing to have something in place that’s sustainable and is able to be retroactive, reactive, and proactive against hate and acts of bias. It was born almost eight years ago, and there are now six Freedom Teams […] Just recently, Walpole shared that they were going to do something as well as Medfield.”

With his experience as a black man in a predominantly white town, I wondered what Jamele Adams’ strategies were in facing the challenges posed by society. His answer? Love. “I just come from love, every time. Love is absolutely strong, powerful […] I say that I’m the love that hate can’t stop. We bring people together, and we move. We can’t deny the strength of it. I work with this statement, ‘Love how you love who you love,’ and it’s based on the foundation of love, inclusion, and trust. I invite people into conversation, not confrontation. So let’s get our energies right and rock with it, and be fearless. It’s our time, our turn. There are people that made it possible for us to be here right now by giving their lives, and if I have to, I would give my life so that we can do this,” Adams expressed.

Jamele Adams ended the night with three repetitions of the following: “One heart, one love, one life, one people, one family.” This phrase perfectly encapsulates the values of Adams. He stresses the value of love unity when fostering inclusion, hence the repetition of “one”. Obliging my request to provide further background on his motto, Adams said “Yeah, so everything you heard, I wrote that. […] At our best, we are all of that together. We are one family, at our best. We just have to get to our best. We haven’t become the best iteration of human beings, yet. But, if we work at it, the trajectory is very possible for that to happen.”