Announcing the Juneteenth Freedom Academy in Durham, NC

Juneteenth Freedom Academy

Apply for Juneteenth Freedom Academy Unit 1: ANGRY LETTERS AND PROTEST POEMS here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CWWYZ3N

During theJuneteenth Freedom Academyparticipants break bread during weekly night school sessions that deeply engage and build on the work of June Jordan as transmitted through the committed (obsessive) research of Alexis Pauline Gumbs on the angry, letters, protest poems, solidarity politics and teaching practices of the visionary badass June Jordan. Participants will also get coursepacks with some exclusive and unpublished materials on/by Jordan and will apply what they learn of Jordan’s methodology to pressing community issues. Participants can choose to participate in one 3 week semester or the entire process. Everyone who completes an application and can attend each session is admitted!!!

Want to donate to the Juneteenth Freedom Academy? Name a scholarship? Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for details!!!!

Unit 1: Angry Letters and Protest Poems:

6pm-9pm at the Inspiration Station on August 18th, 25th and September 1st

June Jordan is described by many of her editors, publishers and colleagues as “difficult” because of the intense anger at all forms of oppression that she expressed in her writing. This course is based on the belief that our anger can be powerful and poetic when we channel in the service of creating the world that our communities deserve! During this course we will explore some of Jordan’s angriest and most impactful open letters, unpublished letters and poems and write our own protest poetry, and open letters that transform the world!!!!

Apply here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CWWYZ3N

Unit 2: Free Palestine

6pm-9pm at the Inspiration Station on Thursday November 4th, 11th and 18th

During her lifetime June Jordan worked in solidarity with Arab-American women towards the vision of a free Palestine and in protest of the media mis-representation of the occupation of Palestine and Zionist imperialism. This unit of the Juneteenth Freedom Academy allows participants to engage in indepth study of Jordan’s poems, speeches, writings and letters on occupied Palestine and the 1980′s conflict in Lebanon, and learn about local solidarity efforts against the 60 year occupation of Palestine as part of a local strategy for solidarity towards the end of imperialism and towards the self-determination of all oppressed people.

Unit 3: Dedication

6pm-9pm at the Inspiration Station on Wednesdays Dec 1, 8th and 15th

Poem for the Poet Alexis De Veaux, Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Poem for Nana, Poem for Daniel Pretty Moynihan, Poem for All the People in Lebanon. Over and over again June Jordan wrote poems for specific individuals and groups of people, and in her act of dedication modeled a possible revolutionary or critical relationship to love and solidarity. In this unit of the Juneteenth Freedom Academy, just in time for the gifting season for many traditions, we will study Jordan’s “Poems For…” and create our own revolutionary dedicated poems for the people in our lives, our communities and people we stand in solidarity with.

Unit 4: Experimental and Hopeful Society (on Teaching)

Summer 2011: specific dates to be determined with visionary teachers in and around Durham, NC

June Jordan, creator of the Poetry for the People curriculum and facilitator of numerous poetry programs for all ages of children and adults thought of the classroom space as an “Experimental and Hopeful Society.” For those of us teaching in a variety of liberatory and constricted settings this is a space to learn from Jordan’s syllabi, and her philosophies on teaching while supporting each other to develop strategies for an experimental and hopeful approach in our own teaching settings everyday!

Announcing the Juneteenth Freedom Academy in Durham, NC

Juneteenth Freedom Academy

Apply for Juneteenth Freedom Academy Unit 1: ANGRY LETTERS AND PROTEST POEMS here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CWWYZ3N

During theJuneteenth Freedom Academyparticipants break bread during weekly night school sessions that deeply engage and build on the work of June Jordan as transmitted through the committed (obsessive) research of Alexis Pauline Gumbs on the angry, letters, protest poems, solidarity politics and teaching practices of the visionary badass June Jordan. Participants will also get coursepacks with some exclusive and unpublished materials on/by Jordan and will apply what they learn of Jordan’s methodology to pressing community issues. Participants can choose to participate in one 3 week semester or the entire process. Everyone who completes an application and can attend each session is admitted!!!

Want to donate to the Juneteenth Freedom Academy? Name a scholarship? Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for details!!!!

Unit 1: Angry Letters and Protest Poems:

6pm-9pm at the Inspiration Station on August 18th, 25th and September 1st

June Jordan is described by many of her editors, publishers and colleagues as “difficult” because of the intense anger at all forms of oppression that she expressed in her writing. This course is based on the belief that our anger can be powerful and poetic when we channel in the service of creating the world that our communities deserve! During this course we will explore some of Jordan’s angriest and most impactful open letters, unpublished letters and poems and write our own protest poetry, and open letters that transform the world!!!!

Apply here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CWWYZ3N

Unit 2: Free Palestine

6pm-9pm at the Inspiration Station on Thursday November 4th, 11th and 18th

During her lifetime June Jordan worked in solidarity with Arab-American women towards the vision of a free Palestine and in protest of the media mis-representation of the occupation of Palestine and Zionist imperialism. This unit of the Juneteenth Freedom Academy allows participants to engage in indepth study of Jordan’s poems, speeches, writings and letters on occupied Palestine and the 1980′s conflict in Lebanon, and learn about local solidarity efforts against the 60 year occupation of Palestine as part of a local strategy for solidarity towards the end of imperialism and towards the self-determination of all oppressed people.

Unit 3: Dedication

6pm-9pm at the Inspiration Station on Wednesdays Dec 1, 8th and 15th

Poem for the Poet Alexis De Veaux, Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Poem for Nana, Poem for Daniel Pretty Moynihan, Poem for All the People in Lebanon. Over and over again June Jordan wrote poems for specific individuals and groups of people, and in her act of dedication modeled a possible revolutionary or critical relationship to love and solidarity. In this unit of the Juneteenth Freedom Academy, just in time for the gifting season for many traditions, we will study Jordan’s “Poems For…” and create our own revolutionary dedicated poems for the people in our lives, our communities and people we stand in solidarity with.

Unit 4: Experimental and Hopeful Society (on Teaching)

Summer 2011: specific dates to be determined with visionary teachers in and around Durham, NC

June Jordan, creator of the Poetry for the People curriculum and facilitator of numerous poetry programs for all ages of children and adults thought of the classroom space as an “Experimental and Hopeful Society.” For those of us teaching in a variety of liberatory and constricted settings this is a space to learn from Jordan’s syllabi, and her philosophies on teaching while supporting each other to develop strategies for an experimental and hopeful approach in our own teaching settings everyday!

A Dream of Foxes: Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcast 4

A Dream of Foxes: Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcast 4 from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

Share your dreams below!!! And don't forget to sign up for the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Poetry Intensive: http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/survival-school/

from the Quirky Black Girls Blog: quirkyblackgirls.blogspot.com

may I never forget
the warning of my woman's flesh
weeping at the new moon
may I never lose that terror
that keeps me brave
May I owe nothing
that I cannot repay.
-from "Solstice" by Audre Lorde

As I write this I am terrified. Early morning clarity has me too present to reality to breathe easily, despite the ocean next to me, despite an hour and a half of attempting deep breaths.

I am terrified because we live in a world where police burst in on little girls and kill them, where juries believe that fearing unarmed Black men is always justified if you are a cop, where cops think tasers and guns can protect them from the karmic weight of their impact on our doom (look what fear does), where the demolition of the Duke Lacrosse Team's house in Durham provides an excuse for racist privileged people must want the right to rape and get away with it to attack survivors of sexual assault for speaking out. I am terrified because a month ago my partner jumped from our moving RV to escape someone desperate enough to threaten her. I am terrified because a week ago friends of ours were attacked by a group of homophobic (look what fear does to us) boys for being "two men laying on a picnic blanket," and held at gunpoint. I am terrified because we don't yet have ways of addressing any of this that don't produce more fear, more desperation and ultimately more violence.

But I am also grateful to each of you who keep me brave. I am grateful to have you as catalysts to turn my panic attacks into poetry. I am grateful to my sisters in UBUNTU for gathering to speak up, speak out and support each other at a moments notice yesterday in Durham. I am grateful for Moya B. and the twitter brigade for bringing the energy of healing and dialogue to the Oscar Grant verdict responses, and for Bea, Allette, Maceo and crew for showing up to realign the energy in person. I am grateful to Ron Scott and the Heal Detroit Coalition for standing for holistic responses to police violence against oppressed communities. I am grateful to Josh, who even after being held at gunpoint maintained an institutional critique and spoke eloquently about the impact of spiritual violence and churchgrown homophobia on all of our lives. I am grateful to Julia for continuing to unstoppably wake up everyday ready to transform the world with me.

How does terror keep us brave? Terror keeps me brave in the priceless form of you, who survive, in my chance to participate in the shape of your survival, in the unabated possibility for loving in these of all circumstances. I would not want to be numb to the horror of violence as it appears in our lives. It is clear to me that all of this violence is unnatural, direct results of systems of oppression. It is clear to me that those who export terror, and try to pretend it comes from outside of the US are using fear to blind themselves and others. Those who war against terror deny its source. Terror is the reverb life of violence in our bodies, hearts and minds, the shouting of our spirits against that which does NOT honor life. I do not want to lose this terror until the oppression that causes it is over and done with and out of our lives. And even then, I will remember how much I love you and keep creating rituals that affirm our worth and our love and our pricelessness beyond fear.

These past three weeks I have been preparing for the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School with Rebirth broadcasts (thanks for the shout out Safire!)
that highlight how Clifton's poetry reminds of key skills for times of terror especially for those of us who are survivors of the many forms of violence that an oppressive society produces (click the links to see the videos)

1. Celebrate Our Survival
http://vimeo.com/12903202
2. Bless Ourselves and Each Other
http://vimeo.com/13086340
3. Assemble Our Ancestral Amazons
http://vimeo.com/13248193

I invite you to explore the bravery of your terror and the transformation it requires. What are the warnings of your flesh? What is the terror that keeps you brave? Join the discussion here: http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.com/forum/topics/keep-me-brave-on-terror-and

And speaking of transformation, Moya B. has sent word that Ning has agreed to provide free transfer of QBG onto our new social network! Stay tuned, but we should be able to return all the delicious donations you gave in time for you to buy a sweet summer peach.

And if you want to talk with other inspiring educators about teaching for transformation...join us tomorrow (WEDS) night for the School of Our Lorde Pedagogy Webinar at 7:30pm www.tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde

As always feel free to holler with any announcements you have and project you want us all to support. Email me at alexispauline@gmail.com or post to the QBG facebook group page.

LOVE,
Lex

Visit Quirky Black Girls at: http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Amazons: Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcast #3

Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcast 3: Amazons from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

This broadcast is part of the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School. For more info see blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/survival-school.

To sign up for the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival Poetry Intensive on August 21, 2010 in Durham, NC click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3LH6G9J

Lucille Clifton Sunday ShapeShifter Rebirth BroadcastL Birthday Edition

This week…in honor of Lucille Clifton’s first birthday since her transition to starshine I offer the first of a series of weekly Sunday Rebirth Broadcasts in honor of Lucille Clifton! Today’s exercise is based on her powerful survival poem “won’t you celebrate with me.”

Lucille Clifton Sunday ShapeShifter Rebirth Broadcast: Birthday Edition from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

This series of broadcasts is part of the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School:

In honor of the great poet Lucille Clifton, who was also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a mother, an artist and self-identified Amazon warrior through her poetry, the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School is especially designed for families that are committed to ending childhood sexual abuse and all forms of gendered violence. Informed by Generation 5 and the regional plan of the Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative, the ShapeShifter Survival School is part of a holistic process of ending child sexual abuse by creating healing community.

for more details on the 4 components of the ShapeShifter Survival School look here: http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/survival-school/

And finally…no one delivers this poem better than Ms. Lucille herself.

Happy Birthday Lucille Clifton: Announcing the Shapeshifter Survival School

http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/survival-school/

Introducing the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School in Durham, NC!!!!

In honor of the great poet Lucille Clifton, who was also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a mother, an artist and self-identified Amazon warrior through her poetry, the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School is especially designed for families that are committed to ending childhood sexual abuse and all forms of gendered violence. Informed by Generation 5 and the regional plan of the Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative, the ShapeShifter Survival School is part of a holistic process of ending child sexual abuse by creating healing community.

The ShapeShifter Survival School has 4 components:

Lucille Clifton Sunday Rebirth Broadcasts: Every Sunday starting on Lucille Clifton's birthday (June 27th) and going until November 7th Lex will video broadcast a poem by Lucille Clifton and a survival reflection/activity.

ShapeShifter Poetry Intensive for Parents (Saturday August 21st 10am-5pm) CHILDCARE AND MEALS PROVIDED (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com if you want to do childcare or donate food or photocopies!)

For all parents and caregivers and survivors of sexual violence who are committed to ending child sexual abuse this poetry intensive will allow participants to reflect on Lucille Clifton's ShapeShifter series and other poems that deal directly with her experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse and to write and share their own poetry of healing and transformation.

Suggested donation: $25-100 (monetary and in-kind donations welcome at any point in the process...we encourage asking for donations from your families of origin and communities as a way to share your vision with them of creating a world free from child sexual abuse)

On Tuesday August 24th participants and allies will reconvene over tea to check-in in a loving affirming space and to make handmade ShapeShifter booklets as a fundraiser for the continued work of the ShapeShifter Survival School .

On Wednesday September 15th we will have another check-in about the process of sharing this work and bringing up the topic of child sexual abuse in our communities.

Everett Anderson Storytime Week! (Monday September 20-Wednesday September 22) (ALL AGES INCLUSIVE DONATIONS WELCOME!)

Lucille Clifton wrote a series of books called the "Everett Anderson Books" for her children and other children that discuss difficult issues, including the loss of a loved one, internalized racism and sexism and witnessing abuse as child. With dinner and cookies and milk we will read these stories together and do a series of activities designed to help us create ways of sharing difficult and important stories across generations in our communities. We believe that sharing stories, truthtelling, is a key practice towards ending child sexual abuse and all cycles of violence in our communities.

All Souls ShapeShifter Story Making Day (Sunday Oct 31st 11am-6pm) (ALL AGES INCLUSIVE...SWEET DONATIONS WELCOME!)

Replete with costumes, candy and storymaking stations this will be a chance for us to make our own collaborative illustrated community story about transformation, facing what scares us and creating a world free from child sexual abuse and all gendered violence. Our beautiful story and our beautiful process of creating together will be a resource for us and for superheroes everywhere.

Applications for the poetry intensive coming soon! Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to express interest in participating, donating a scholarship or donating food, money, photocopies, DV tapes and other forms of love!!!!!

Notes From Kansas: by MobileHomeComing Interviewee Angela Denise Davis

*Note: We are thrilled to be practicing intergenerational love and we are learning from the best. This piece is a beautiful reflection by MobileHomeComing Interviewee Angela Denise Davis about FINDING her mother's garden.

I know there is a poem in this somewhere. It almost got lost this evening when my mother did a final spray over her garden and did not notice that my laptop was on the patio table.

My mother’s back yard is full of flavor: an old kitchen, ceiling fan turned sideways on a patio column, a black mailbox that peeks from the grapevines, an umbrella on the deck that leans to kiss the umbrella on the patio, and a striped snake whose presence is the reason for a container of mothballs on the table. I wish I had a camera.

Her back yard is her sanctuary. I find shelter in a chair that is snuggled by a palm plant and a family of pots – terra cotta, green plastic, clay, metal, and those invented out of found objects.

She is out there in the morning and in the late evening when the sun is less brutal than at mid-day.

I watched this evening as she cut down wandering vines and swept the patio clean. My father will have work to do tomorrow. I ask if I should put the cut greenery in the garden trash can.

“No,” she says.

“Mama, dad ain’t gonna like seeing this stuff on his fresh cut lawn,” I tell her.

She just replies with a chuckle that he needs to see all the work he should have done. She said he would never recognize her work if she didn’t leave the pile in the yard. She is right, of course. My father says she works too hard, but he enjoys the creation of vines structure and spirit as much as she does.

I listen as the water from the faucet trickles into a bucket she has slid under the attached hose.

“I don’t like to waste water,” she informs me and I take the bucket into her garden. The Marigolds did not get rain last night. They will thrive in their homes made of the holes in the cement blocks that line her rows of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and okra.

There is always work to do in this space my mother has created. This evening she wants to place hooks on the beams of her patio roof.

“Who does this when I am not here, Mama?” I ask with the answer already in my head.

“Oh, your dad,” she says. I know that she does not always have the patience to wait for him, though. Tonight, I make sure that she does not over exert herself and reach for the drill in her hand.

I step on the small, metal stool and place the drill over my head, reaching as high as I can. Three hooks later, we place the ferns and other potted plants just beneath the lattice covered with wild vines. She tells me that anyone from Alabama or Mississippi would know the name of the mass of greenery that hangs from the patio roof like a blanket of leaves. I tell her that I will ask Mary Anne about the vine which my mother thinks may be named Ms. Astor.

The night was closing fast around us, but I would not go in the house until my mother was trailing behind me. I knew that she could always find more work to do before calling it quits. She will be 70 years-old next January. She has more work in this life than she will ever finish.

“We’ll get the rest in the morning,” I tell her.

This week has been full of heart work. We have grieved the loss of her niece, my cousin. It has been a loss that has made our distance more regretful. Here, in her green world we seem to be finding our way back home to each other. We are two women working on reconciliation. Perhaps, we are planting new ways of being mother and daughter. I hope so, but do not invest too much time in expecting what the harvest of these days will bring. I am simply satisfied with the knowledge that we have planted something new between us here in her back yard even though there is more work for tomorrow.

-Angela Denise Davis

Eternal Summer Reading List

Hello loved ones!

Yesterday as we drove from Atlanta to London, Kentucky on the MobileHomeComing Journey I started to wax nostalgic about summer reading. Clearly I have been reading all year long since I was 2, but there was something about the booklet we used to get from school with recommended summer reading and the trip to the library to get the books and the excitement that though school was over books would always always be with me. Now that I have my PhD receipt in hand and it is officially Eternally Summer AND I've just returned crates and crates of books to Duke University Library...I want to reinstitute summer reading for all of us (and especially for all of you that have been asking me for booklists)!

Yippee!

So the theme of this Summer Reading List is....SPIRIT (and no I wasn't on the cheerleading squad) as you get ready for a soon-coming publication Spirit Vol. 2 of the Little Black (Feminist) Book series...get a head start on some of the reading that has given me access to Black Feminism as a spiritual practice and an everyday healing and inspiring walk.

Books that I have read:

(please feel free to donate one or more of these to the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Lending Library via this wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/9JXRNX84Z3R9/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_wl)

Non/fiction

Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred (Perverse Modernities) by M. Jacqui Alexander

Zami, Audre Lorde

Fiction

At the Full and Change of the Moon, Dionne Brand

The Salt Eaters, Toni Cade Bambara

The Salt Roads, Nalo Hopkinson

Sula, Toni Morrison

Poetry

The World is Round, Nikky Finney

Gospel, Samiya Bashir

The Book of Light, Lucille Clifton

AND A non-fiction book that I haven't read yet that I REALLY want to read: (please feel free to donate this to the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Lending Library via this wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/9JXRNX84Z3R9/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_wl)

Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace (Compass)

by Angel Kyodo Williams

Have the best summer ever. May it never end.

love,

lex

How do you spell a very long scream?

And Sometimes Why

Poem against the speechlessness of oil spills and flotilla attacks.

A

Asthma

Ask Audre

ask Audre angel above

ask

ask about ash

about aid

about asking

about anything

Ask about anguish

and Atlas

about anger at atoms

about artillery

about acid

about animals

about ache

Ask

about authoring abundance

about awe

about awful

Ask Asha

Ask Angela

Ask Assata

about apocalypse

ask about after

about

after about

after

At answer

Ask

Ask

Ask again

At apocalypse

ask again.

E

Early egg

every easy enterprise

each Edenic endeavor

eager executive execution

eats everything

express ending

each ending eats earth

everytime

end

entertain excellence

explain energy

each essence ending

empty economy

emergency everytime

each empty eagle egg

eats everything

ending earth

everytime

end

I

ill innoculate

itching intern

idiot industry

icon inside ice

inside interest

international impasse

impossible island

inside innocence

i

imagine

i ignore

i invade

i invoke

i incite

i identify

i imitate

i isolate

i inflame

i inhabit

i implode

israel

indefinite ice incident

increment

inches inside ideals

ink in iris

inches inside

ices over

indian ink

intimate

indispensible

indigenous

incantation

imperative

i itch

i inch

ice isn’t infinite

is it

O

o owl

o otter

o oak

o oyster

o ozone

o Oya

o Oshun

o Okefenokee

ordain order

o offshore oil

o oil orgy

o ornament oscillation

om

our own out

ooze out our only

onto our own

off our only orbit

out

obey

oil over

our only

ocean

oil options

over olive oil

over our oath

oil over opening ownership

oil over opening our one oath

oil over our opening

our objection

occuptation

o Omar

o Oprah

o Omran

o Obama

o Obsidian ocean

our own occident

over offering

oil

over

our own one

oil

over our only ocean

U

up

use up until until

up up

US uses us

use us up until

up up up

urgent useless us

up up up up

united us unties us up

up until u ululate

unless u unsettle

usher us up

urgent ugly uncle

umbilical up

use us until

up up up

uncage

underneath

unleash

up until up up

until up up up up

u up up up

up up

up

up

up

-Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Keep Doing It: aka The Black Women's Walk on Water Mutual Respect Supreme Love Society Award

At a celebration of Toni Cade Bambara's short, powerful everything-changing life, Toni Morrison, her friend, editor and collaborator mentioned that the two of them formed a committee called some poetic variation on "The Black Women's Walk on Water Mutual Respect Supreme Love Society." At sporadic times when they wanted to support each other's writing and work in the world they would send each other small checks, whatever they could afford...with the note...you are the recipient of the Black Women's Walk on Water Mutual Respect Supreme Love Award...

What a beautiful practice. What a tradition we walk in. For those of you who contributed your "Walk on Water" dollars to the QBG preservation fund, for all of us who bankroll paypal by helping to fund each others dream projects, healing tattoos, necessary journeys, lifeline equipment, we are next generation initiates in the way Toni loves Toni and we love each other/each self enough to insist that wealth is never individual and that we have the material power to create the world we deserve.

And there is evidence of this everywhere. I am particularly present to and grateful for the way over 60 loved ones and comrades made donations and hooked up speaking gigs so that Q(ueer) (B)rilliant (G)ander Julia and I could actually achieve our dream and buy the Revolutionary Vehicle an old-school retro fuel efficient RV that will allow us to enact the MobileHomeComing Project and travel the country documenting and amplifying the resilience and brilliance of our queer Black community. Missed the fun? Feel free to donate to keep us eating and mobile on the road. And check out a video of our journey to find the RV here: http://vimeo.com/12297014

And a couple of weeks ago some Quirky radicals gathered in Durham, North Carolina to celebrate the Combahee River Collective and honor Sakia Gunn with a week long ritual of creating and transforming community. Check out pictures from Combahee Survival Revival Week from QBG Moya here:

Combahee Survival in general: http://picasaweb.google.com/qbgphotography/CombaheeSurvival?feat=email#

a very hot game of "Hot Date" http://picasaweb.google.com/qbgphotography/CombaheeSurvivalistsPlayHotDate?feat=email#

and a super useful guide to edible plants from QBG Zachari's herban foraging tour of Durham: http://picasaweb.google.com/qbgphotography/HerbanForagingWithZachari?feat=email#


And this week...like every week you have plenty of opportunities to show your Mutual Respect and Supreme love with that which matters so much more than money ever should. Your words and your presence!

For example...rock out to QBG Corinne Stevie's new album at the Land of the Free Release Party: http://quirkyblackgirls.blogspot.com/2010/05/corinne-stevie-kara-kersey-present-land.html

Contribute your brilliance and ferocity to the FAAN Mail project...engaging popular artists in transformative feminist ways: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/FAAN-Mail/116931731667497

Write something for the American Pariah project: http://quirkyblackgirls.blogspot.com/2010/05/american-pariamerican-pariah.html

and very urgently due to the further escalation of the state of Israel against human rights activists bringing aid to Gaza raise your voice in support of Palestine following the lead of QBG Mai'a: http://guerrillamamamedicine.wordpress.com/

You are a recipient in the Black Girls are From the Future (cite QBG Renina) Multi-directional Bliss Lustful Revolution Award.

Don't spend it all in one place! :)

Infinite love,
QBG Lex

Poetry is Not a Luxury: The Remix (by School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar Participants)

www.summerofourlorde.wordpress.com

(Lex's wardrobe provided by Ammoliscious and sister-comrade Leah Burke)

I LOVE THE SCHOOL OF OUR LORDE WEBINARS!!!!!!

After reading and discussing Audre Lorde's "Poetry is Not a Luxury" the participants in the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar collaboratively created these two poems about what poetry IS and what it IS NOT!!!! Much love to Monchel, Chantal, Rosa and Leana for being badass cyber cypher warriors!!!!

not

poetry is not a mask

poetry is not a commercial

poetry is not homogeneous

poetry is not an excuse

poetry is not perverse

poetry is not linear

poetry is not just for white guys with nothing better to do

poetry is not canonized

not a classroom unit

poetry is not a bunch/of line breaks/in random/places

not a grade

poetry is not taught or learned--it's the language we were born with

not death without a birth

poetry is not inhibited

poetry is not brought to you by hallmark

a competition

poetry [will] not be televised

not a "10"

poetry is not about meter

poetry is not an accessory in a psuedo-revolutionary lifestyle

poetry is not oppressive

poetry is not convenient

poetry is not always easy

poetry is not boxable

not a bindi on a dreadlocked white girl's forehead at a powwow

poetry is not the destination -- it is the journey

poetry is not standard english

poetry is not patchouli

is

poetry is my son's smile

my fingers walking across his belly and squirming back

poetry is a heartbeat

yes

poetry is what i say to my reflection when i think no one is listening

poetry is a place to live

poetry is goosebumps!

poetry is breath

poetry is prayer

poetry is a breath of fresh air

poetry is italian ice on a 90-degree day

lol

poetry is your hand in mine

poetry is laughing out loud :P

hee!

poetry is an ecosystem

YES

poetry is painful but not in vain

poetry is a lifeline

poetry is family

poetry is an open heart

poetry is a safe space

poetry is knowing when you've met The One (or The Ones)

poetry is an exorcism

poetry is jabberwocky

poetry is knowing when you've met yourself

poetry is a new spelling of my name and everything else

poetry is the sound of sitting still

the sounds of getting up

poetry is raw

sdrawkcab si yrteop

poetry is forwards

poetry is a yes followed by an oh yes!

poetry is circular

poetry is everpresent

poetry is old

is silent when we're not listening, but still persistently there

poetry is about to happen

poetry is our only hope

poetry is wanted and feared

poetry is your skin knitting itself back together

poetry is omnipresent

poetry is an open door

this language is beautiful

poetry is love

poetry is stinky funky lust

poetry is knowing when to stop

and start again

poetry is what makes you say "aww" when you see a little kid

poetry is putting into words what had no words before

poetry is putting into words what never existed before

poetry is what my heart is saying to my hand

poetry is constantly naming what is so it doesn't get lost

poetry is mothering myself

poetry is how my mom calls my cell phone whenever i say (or type) the word “mother”

poetry is calling for my attention

to join the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com

MobileHomeComing Update!: We Got the RV!!!!

www.mobilehomecoming.wordpress.com

We got our Revolutionary Vehicle!!!!!

Dear Family,
With your support Julia and Alexis have actually obtained the RV (Revolutionary Vehicle) that will transport us to you and all of our far flung loved ones to document the resilience and brilliance of Black queer folks across generations!

love,
lex and julia

Watch this video about how we got it!

RV Adoption! from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

It's never too late to help us out with gas money and living-on-the-road costs! Donate or become a monthly sustainer today!

Click below on the amount that feels generously doable to you to sign up for an automatic monthly donation (you do not have to sign up for a paypal account):

For a one time motivation donation click below!

1) Click DONATE.
2) Enter an Amount.
3) Click Continue.
(or login to your paypal account).
4) Follow instructions to finish your transaction. You're Done!

Audre in Stereo

from For SHE So Loved the World: The Lorde Within

I don't know if Audre used to call those Lesbian party lines back in the day. My hunch is that probably not so much, because she did a lot of her work in the time of a telephone monopoly, when long-distance service was really expensive and I can tell you...plenty of telephone disconnection services show up in the archived papers of Black feminist writers. Considering the miracles that Lorde participated in with sister-comrades, Pat Parker, Barbara Smith, Cheryl Clarke, Honor Moore while not living in the same state, or on the same coast or in the same country, through snail mail letters, it blows my mind to imagine what they might have done via skype!

At the same time...I'm grateful that some of those profound, world shifting, publication creating, discourse transforming conversations had to happen in letters, sometimes literally carbon-copied (the original "cc") to multiple people. Because as a scholar, retro-stalker and Black feminist devotee having those letters available to read and reread means everything. Provides a trail and a trace. How are we documenting our brilliance now?

At any rate I think Audre would be tripping with glee at even the glitch-filled experience that those of us in the School of Our Lorde publishing webinar had in an audio-visual enabled internet chat room in her name! Blowing each other kisses from Durham, to Cairo, to New York City to the Rio Grande Valley, to New Hampshire, Fayetteville, to DC to Minnesota, to California, to Albany...you get the idea. I wonder if the energy of those kisses and the speed and delight with which they are received is having an internet butterfly effect, creating a storm of warrior wisdom and transformation, fanning the flames of our hearts and the ferocity of our words.

All I know is that I wake up everyday looking for another way to commune with the brilliant, complicated, warrior energy that I call Audre Lorde. And these past three weeks in the webinar I have been blessed to experience the playfulness, wisdom, hopeful spirit, critical insight, flirtatious naughtiness, and unblinkawayable beauty of Audre in the faces and typing fingers of all of the participants in the webinar. I am so grateful for this experience and I'm looking forward to how the poetry webinar (Mondays starting June 2 at www.tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde) will print you further on my heart. (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for the readings for the next webinar!)

In the hands of the many,

Lex

Best Weekend Ever!!!: Combahee Survival Kick-off Weekend May 22-23 in Durham NC!!!

LOVED ONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to the future. As we get ready for the best week ever...orient your bliss with a BEAUTIFUL weekend featuring Durham diaspora all-stars Ebony Noelle Golden and Zachari Curtis, Greensboro commuter Laila A. and YOU!!!!!!!
*Email me at brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com if you want help support parents, donate art supplies, food, toilet paper etc, or if you want to take pictures or shoot video of the events!!!!!



***Note...all events this weekend start at the Inspiration Station email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for street address)

Set-it off on Saturday! 5/22

10 am Continental Breakfast at the Inspiration Station (Guess which continent?)

11 am Herban Foraging with Zachari Curtis

Farmer, dancer, capoerista, singer, visionary sista-comrade Zachari Curtis returns to Durham to share with us her knowledge of local, informal food sources. On this leisurely walk through the neighborhood adjacent to the Inspiration Station we will share knowledge and benefit from Zachari's generations-thick knowledge of plants in and from this region. YUM!

2pm Combahee: We Invented the Remix (Guerilla Altar Making) with Ebony Noelle Golden)


Bring scrap-exchange esque items ready for transformation as we re-create/re-affirm West Durham (the neighbrorhood of the Inspiration Station) as a sacred space for the Combahee Survival Revival and the duration. We will be reading, performing and remixing passages from the sacred text (The Combahee River Collective Statement-download here: http://combaheesurvival.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/combahee.pdf) while we leave markers for passersby to come, witness, and transform.


5pm Potluck Dinner and Zine-Making @ the Inspiration Station

We've got veggie burgers and hot dogs and a borrowed grill. Bring your sides and your smiles for outdoor or indoor fellowship and an art station where you can layout/collage a page of the Combahee Survival Guide!

****updated**** 7pm SeeSaw Teen Design Show

Celebrate the SeeSaw Studio's 3rd Annual BLAMO Teen Design Show at 410 West Geer Street from 7-8:30pm! This show will feature a runway of t-shirts, skirts, bags and skateboard decks from our Youth Designers. Admission is free - please tell EVERYONE to come out and support the positive achievements of youth in Durham!

And then...dancing?

Salvation Sunday (5/23)

11am Potluck Brunch at the Inspiration Station


Bring goodies, drink fancy herbal teas (thanks to Erin Bree for the Whole Foods hook up!) Come meet the beautiful out of town guests and recruit them to move to Durham! Do more Zine Making if you feel like it!

1pm Sakia Gunn Sunday School
What does it mean to honor a queer black ancestor who became an ancestor far too early, at the age of 15? What does it mean to honor the life of someone who is best known as the victim of a brutal death. This Sunday School right before what would be Sakia Gunn's 24th birthday we seek and praise what it means to honor queer youth of color as spiritual leaders in our communities.

5pm Black Girls Rock II: Porch Concert featuring Laila A.!!!!


If you missed the first Black Girls Rock event...you can wake your heart up and rejoice. This Sunday you get a second chance to hear the self-taught beautiful creations of queer Black brilliant Greensboro singer-song-writer-guitarist Laila A. What's that? You rock too? Let us know at this intimate supportive concert on the side porch of the Inspiration Station.

AND 7pm ...Sunday Dinner Survival Potluck
You know how we do!


Sneak preview of the events for the rest of the week!

Monday May 24th—Daytrip to Tierra Negra Farm (yay for Tahz and Christina)

Tuesday May 25th—3pm Mamas Gathering @ the Inspiration Station

— 6pm Safe in Our Streets Roundtable on Queer Youth and Safety (featuring the Youth Noise Network @ Durham Media Center)

Wednesday May 26th—(Sakia Gunn’s Birthday)

Afterschool Butterfly Ancestors Workshop at the Museum for Life and Science (featuring Nia Wilson)

Thursday May 27th—Baking Day at Bread Uprising Bakery!!!!!!

Interactive Root Chakra Survival Workshop (featuring Audrey Esquivel and Kifu Faruq)

Friday May 28th—Noontime Oshun Eno River Experience (featuring Kia Carscallen)

(Seneca the teenage philosopher gets to town!!!!!!)

BACKYARD CAMPOUT at the Inspiration Station

Saturday May 29th—Sisters of the Healing Drum Circle (featuring Salsa Soul Sister starting Black Lesbian Elders Harriet Alston and Carolyn Gray)

Pajama Jammy-Jam Featuring your favorite Early 90′s Music at the Summit Spot!

Sunday May 30th—-Brunch and Garden Walk at the Summit Spot

Monday May 31—Work Day at JRuth Farm 9am-3pm. Transportation available.

Super inspired? Donate or become a monthly sustainer of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind!!!!
http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/donation-station/

School of Our Lorde Poetics Webinar starts June 2!!!!

Hey loved ones! Just wanted y'all to save the date for the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar! Kicking of on June 2nd you have the opportunity to have your relationship to poetry deepened, enlivened, informed and inspired by the work of Audre Lorde! Hooray! Save the dates! (6/2, 6/9, 6/16) 7:30-9:30 EDT and meet us at http://tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde If you don’t have a web cam you will still be able to see and hear me and to ask questions via live chat. If you want to gather more folks in front of your computer that is much welcomed.

****If you plan to participate. Send an email to me at brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com so I can send you pdf's with the reading.****

Everyone will be invited to donate what they can/want to via paypal.


or just this link if it is easier: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3VHV86GHPK56J

Can’t wait to see your face and/or your words via chat!!! Yay!

love,
lex

School of Our Lorde Poetics Webinar starts June 2!!!!

Hey loved ones! Just wanted y'all to save the date for the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar! Kicking of on June 2nd you have the opportunity to have your relationship to poetry deepened, enlivened, informed and inspired by the work of Audre Lorde! Hooray! Save the dates! (6/2, 6/9, 6/16) 7:30-9:30 EDT and meet us at http://tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde If you don’t have a web cam you will still be able to see and hear me and to ask questions via live chat. If you want to gather more folks in front of your computer that is much welcomed.

****If you plan to participate. Send an email to me at brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com so I can send you pdf's with the reading.****

Everyone will be invited to donate what they can/want to via paypal.


or just this link if it is easier: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3VHV86GHPK56J

Can’t wait to see your face and/or your words via chat!!! Yay!

love,
lex

Comabhee Survival Revival NEXT Week!!!!

SAVE THE DATE! COMBAHEE SURVIVAL REVIVAL WEEK IN DURHAM, NC MAY 22-29th

In honor of Sakia Gunn and the Combahee River Collective, Combahee Survival Revival Week in Durham, NC will be a week full of trainings on how to live, eat, work and think sustainably and radically! Featuring fieldtrips, farm workdays, experiments, video making, poetic games, political discussions, writing workshops, healing demonstrations, backyard camp-outs, singing, dancing and bonding, this week will be a preview of Black Feminist Heaven…what our community looks like when we share what we know, turn towards each other and nurture and amplify our exciting interconnections!!!! This process is inspired by the brilliance and legacy of Black feminists on the universe, and everyone of every background who is inspired by that legacy is encouraged to participate!

Get ready for the best week ever!!!!!

Saturday May 22nd-- Guerilla Altar Making and Herban Foraging (featuring Zachari Curtis!)

Sunday May 23rd---10 am Sunday School in Honor of Sakia Gunn

3pm Black Girls Rock Concert on the Porch of the Inspiration Station (featuring Laila A.!)

Monday May 24th---Daytrip to Tierra Negra Farm (yay for Tahz and Christina)

Tuesday May 25th---3pm Mamas Gathering @ the Inspiration Station

--- 6pm Safe in Our Streets Roundtable on Queer Youth and Safety (featuring the Youth Noise Network @ Durham Media Center)

Wednesday May 26th---(Sakia Gunn's Birthday)

Afterschool Butterfly Ancestors Workshop at the Museum for Life and Science (featuring Nia Wilson)

Thursday May 27th---Baking Day at Bread Uprising Bakery!!!!!!

Interactive Root Chakra Survival Workshop (featuring Audrey Esquivel and Kifu Faruq)

Friday May 28th---Noontime Oshun Eno River Experience (featuring Kia Carscallen)

(Seneca the teenage philosopher gets to town!!!!!!)

BACKYARD CAMPOUT at the Inspiration Station

Saturday May 29th---Sisters of the Healing Drum Circle (featuring Salsa Soul Sister starting Black Lesbian Elders Harriet Alston and Carolyn Gray)

Pajama Jammy-Jam Featuring your favorite Early 90's Music at the Summit Spot!

Sunday May 30th----Brunch and Garden Walk at the Summit Spot

Monday May 31---Work Day at JRuth Farm

If you'd like to support the Combahee Survival Process and you live in or near Durham here are some ways you can be part of the village! Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com and let me know how you want to participate!!!

*COME! Participate in the activities, fieldtrips, discussions, backyard camp-out and EVERYDAY shared meals. Bring the whole family!

*FOOD!!!! This is the most crucial way that most people can participate...cook a dish, donate food, donate a gift card to the grocery store or hook us up with goodies/leftovers from the restauraunt that you work for!

*Parental Support-all activities are designed for all ages to participate, but in order to model a parent supportive community we'd like to have non-parent volunteers to help support and look out for the youngest among us so that parents can fully participate in the sessions they attend.
*Rides to fieldtrips..we'll be going to the Eno River, to Tierra Negra Farm, to the Museum of Life and Science and more. If you can help drive when we carpool that would be awesome. And you'll get a copy of Lex's reading Audre Lorde poems on CD to listen to in the car!
*Documentation-THIS is going to be the Best Week Ever!!!! Help us document by taking pictures or video.
*Photocopies-if you can make photocopies at your job as an official or unofficial inkind donation...let me know!

***Much needed supplies:

For out of town guests, sleepovers and the backyard campout we'll need to borrow

air mattresses

sleeping bags

tents

*This event is designed for Durham residents and with Durham at heart, but some members of the Durham diaspora and potential Durham recruits will be in town for the festivities. Let me know if you'd like to host someone from out of town.

We'll also be using a lot of

*t-shirts and other clothing ready to be transformed

*printer ink

*acrylic t-shirt transfers from office depot (get the ones for t-shirts of color)

*DV tape (digital video tape)

*Medium trash bags
*Toilet paper
*misc. art supplies
*big post-it paper
*pens and pencils
Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to volunteer or to find out more!!!!!

Still Brave Podcast

Greetings loved ones!!!!!

This podcast is a graduation gift from me to you, from Black Women's Studies to me and to a planet ready to be transformed by our bravery!!! Consider it a bravery infusion, listen to it when you need a supplement, or honor yourself by contextualizing your brilliance in the deep tradition of Black feminist intellectual bravery.

Despite the adversity (two different police officers in one county in Virginia pulled me over on my way) I was able to have the beautiful experience of attending the Still Brave Symposium at University of Maryland, a celebration of the impact of the classic anthology All the Women are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies and the contributors of the new collection Still Brave, published by the Feminist Press last year.

On this podcast you will hear Black feminist scholars Akasha Hull, Barbara Smith, Patricia Hill Collins, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Frances Foster Smith, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Cheryl Wall, Cheryl Clarke, Elsa Barkely Brown, Renina Jarmon, Christin Taylor, Courtney Marshall, Monica A. Coleman, Faith Pennick, Nikki Lane, Sharon Hurley, and Althea Tate talking about what keeps them BRAVE. You will also hear music from Janelle Monae, Mahalia Jackson, Goapele, Mosadi Music, John Coltrane, Lykki Li, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Amanda Ray, The Lost Bois, Santigold and more!

The experience of making and editing this podcast affirms for me that tomorrow when I walk to get my PhD in English, African and African American Studies and Women's Studies, I am participating in a long, deep, resonant walk with many fellow travelers. One of the blessings that keeps me brave is the vibrant, intergenerational community of Black feminist scholars, cultural workers and activists represented here.

Stay brave,

Alexis

Still Brave

[audio http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/still-brave.mp3]

direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/still-brave.mp3

Essex Hemphill Sunday School: The Podcast

You know I had to hook you up for Mother’s Day! To honor the nurturing work that queer Black folks have been doing in all of our communities for lifetimes….this podcast honors the prophet, poet, activist, ancestor Essex Hemphill. Documenting the Sunday School at the Inspiration Station celebrating Hemphill’s birthday in April, this podcast features the voices of Durham’s finest (and the Durham diaspora) reading Hemphill’s poetry and our own work inspired by his legacy, his visions of the afterlife, his love for community. Wake up new with the powerful voices of Yolanda Carrington, Ashon Crawley, Diane Beckett, Chelsea Earles, Beth Bruch, Jade Brooks, Elandria Williams, Ebony Noelle Golden, and get inspired with beautiful music from Yolo Akili, Meshell Ndegeocello, Duke Ellington, Raheem DeVaughn, Res, and Curtis Mayfield.

Contextualize your Sunday, mother yourself, listen with your mother!

(direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/essex-hemphill-sunday-school-podcast-1.mp3)

(and this time the levels are totally equal, but still a little quiet. So raise the praise and pump up the volume.)

Infinite love,

Alexis