Brenda Mosley is a Kensington resident, block captain, NKCDC community connector, and the founder and executive director of the organization By Faith Health and Healing.
Mosley shared the following with Kensington Voice: “Being a resident in Kensington, overcoming the loss of a loved one, being a recovering addict of about 30 years, overcoming and surviving Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and homelessness, I am a soldier in Kensington. This poem is a true reflection of the many residents who have done the same as a village of soldiers.”
Kensington: A Village Of Soldiers
Kensington is a village of soldiers.
We are powerful and resilient in the face of grief and the loss of loved ones to gun violence, addiction, incarceration, pain, and suffering.
We love each other through the loss, through the healing, and back to the joys of life.
We fill the emptiness with the spirit of the arts, prayers, and the comfort of God’s love.
We need the power of connectivity, creativity, and love.
We give from the soul that was once so empty, but now through grief, we have found ourselves in the spirit of love and the healing power from the village of soldiers.
We once feared loneliness, powerlessness, and death.
We would love to see our visions, our hopes, and our dreams come back to life.
We want to share the spirit of oneness, love, peace, and joy.
We are Kensington: A village of soldiers who have overcome the death of the streets, grief, the loss of loved ones to gun violence, addiction, and incarceration.
We have overcome, and by the spirit of God’s love, we healed. We are Kensington: A village of soldiers.
Read more: Grief and loss: These new programs in Kensington help mothers and fathers heal
Have you been affected by gun violence in Philadelphia? Click here for free resources from Up the Block, a project created by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence.
Editors: Solmaira Valerio, Jillian Bauer-Reese, Zari Tarazona / Designer: Henry Savage
