Acknowledgements
Magister is not an origin. It is a textile, a quilt woven from the songs, pain, agony, joy, prayers, ideas, and hopes of humanity that have found their way to me.
Magister is not mine alone, nor did it happen in a vacuum.
I grew up listening to the people who spoke to me. Obviously, I don't mean who spoke directly to me. Around me.
I did not do the hard part of listening. They all did the hard part of speaking so that they are unavoidable, unignorable, and more to the point, inspiring. Though I did not always understand, and I find myself remembering that most of the time I didn't, I did listen.
Magister is 1% me, 99% everybody else who helped to mold me into who I am right now, at this moment.
This is our project, and I refuse to accept that they didn't have just as big a part as I did.
After all, I am only a rough approximation of all the information that's ever been provided to me. Something something, shoulders of giants.
Magister exists now. It is ours. No more butchered tongues.
- Andrew John Hozier-Byrne / Hozier, who mourns the ones we've lost and rages at those who forced identities upon others
- Ryan Abeo / RA Scion of Common Market, who taught me about what's wrong and that it's possible to give a shit
- George Watsky / Watsky, who weaponizes words for a living and never let me forget that there are a billion ways to express yourself if you have the right tools
- Milo Rossi / Miniminuteman on YouTube, who argues against the erasure of the humanity of those who came before us in all of his content and worldviews
- George Quibuyen / Prometheus Brown of Blue Scholars, who, along with Ryan Abeo, injected the pride of identity and the fight to preserve it into my life
- Ali Douglas Newman / Brother Ali, who makes music about how hard it is to be human
- Len Pennie / Misspunnypennie on Instagram, who argues correctly every day that her language IS a language and not a quirky dialect
- Chief Joseph, who resisted every attempt to take his identity away, until the end
- Ursula K. LeGuin, who was so gentle in her writing but still took the time to rest a while
- Exurb1a, one of the most profoundly human people on this planet
- Dr. Dan McClellan, who has emphasized the power of language and agendas and their effects on people
- WikiTongues, who, well obviously, their whole thing is documenting languages, and doing an amazing job of it
- Organizations like Generation Red Road that help give marginalized peoples back their identities
- My dad, who started my love of and respect for language by being an absolute steel trap of knowledge and empathy, and without those I am but a resounding gong
- The woman I married, who made a home out of two hearts and became the feeling of relief after a long period of struggle
- Her family, who accepted me, who despite not speaking the same talky talky language as me, speak the universal language of humanity and kindness
- The unyielding willingness of humanity to pick up new tools and correct itself, even if it takes thousands of years.
This is how we start, I guess.