Dinner party diplomacy.

• Author: Williams, Terry Tempest
• Position: Open Space - In memoriam

Andrea Lewis was a friend of mine. She passed away on November 15, 2009, from a heart attack. The last time we were together was for The Progressive 's 100th birthday party in the spring. We shared a meal, a very long meal, the kind where time and space expand in the landscape of deep sharing.

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We spoke about finding one's voice. Andrea, a distinguished journalist and radio host on KPFA in Berkeley, had just completed a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University. Her voice was not only physically arresting, deep and sonorous, but a consistent call for social change. She knew who she was in terms of identity politics: an African American woman, lesbian, and large. But it was her humanity that gave her voice largesse. She was interested in testing her voice, broadening her scope and medium. She was questioning herself and wanting to forge new territory through writing, specifically poetry.

In her sonnet "Delacroix's Liberty," the last two lines remain with me:

Now, tyranny reigns while despe- ration crawls before Another bare-breasted distraction from what we choose to ignore . Andrea Lewis ignored very little. In the realm of democracy and the human struggle, she refused to be distracted but instead practiced the art of engagement, over and over again, challenging opinions and opinion-makers with her searing questions and lines of inquiry.

When I learned of her death, I was shattered. Suddenly, not only had we lost a dear sister, but America had lost part of its collective conscience, voiced through one beautiful individual. What I wouldn't give for one more conversation. Our last correspondence was on October 21. We spoke of uncertainty and how one need not believe in God in times of distress; one only needs to hold on to the trusted hearts of friends.

On a snowy afternoon in Wilson, Wyoming, with candles lit, I listened to a special tribute aired by KPFA that ended with Andrea singing, "There Are Places I Remember." In the emotion of that moment, listening to the power of her voice, clear and unaccompanied, I made a vow to my friend that I would stretch my own voice in her memory. I contacted Matt Rothschild and asked if he would let me try writing a column for The Progressive . He generously said yes.

And so this column is dedicated to the spirit of Andrea Lewis in the name of what we choose not to ignore: the art and landscape of social change.

W here do we begin this conversation? For me, it begins in our...