Indigo Days: June 9-15th, Durham, NC

Indigo Days is a resource for black warrior healers remembering ourselves and reclaiming our traditions of magic, love and transformation. Inspired by the black girl healer folklorist, revolutionary character Indigo in Ntozake Shange's 1982 novel Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, Indigo Days is a context for every day as sacred space for the sacred task of healing our planetary selves and deepening the meaning of life.

Get everyday wisdom here: blueblackblessing.tumblr.com

or submit your own wisdom at blueblackblessing.tumblr.com/submit

Indigo Days (June 9-15, 2011) will be a week of celebration, learning and healing specifically centered on the power of black women and black genderqueer people to be healers, spiritual leaders and transformative warriors in our communities and on the planet. For more info on the event visit indigodays.wordpress.com

The week will include:

A Blues Porch Concert

Workshops on black healing traditions

Herb Walks

Blues Woman Bible Study (blues as sacred texts in the tradition of black feminist healing)

Sharing family remedies and herbal wisdom

A Blue Lights in the Basement House Party

Film Screenings

The gathering is FREE and all participants will be provided with food and housing for the week. Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for more details, and to confirm your participation.

To donate food, various materials, time, money or other resources check the contribution page: http://indigodays.wordpress.com/contribute/ or email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or donate via paypal here:

Educational Materials:

Art Supplies of All Kinds

small notebooks/journals

photocopies

Transportation:

borrowable cars

driving help

Housing:

Couch, futon or guest room space for out of town participants

Airmattresses

Sleeping bags

Food:

Gift cards to Whole Foods, Kroger, Food Lion or Harris Teeter

Healthy vegetarian-friendly and protein-rich dishes

Assorted Items:

Stones

rosewater

birtwort leaves

magnolia incense

lady's fern

candles

flowers from your garden

mint

honey

roses

damiana leaves

cubeb berries

cloth

rasberry tea

cinnamon

vanilla

laurel leaves

wild hyssop

white water lilies

red sunflower

strawberries

mandrake berries

squaw weed

ginger/wild ginger

clay

chammomile

angelica

lemon tea

silk

ribbons

caraway seeds

bowls

linen

Dedicated: Request Line of the Black Feminist Future!!!!

Greetings loved ones!

Because black feminist bass is the unstoppable heartbeat of the universe transforming. Because I revise every song I hear to praise your name. Because a movement is only a movement if it moves...I am excited to announce that my inner internet DJ (Sista-Docta Lex on the ones and zeroes!!) is finally launching a project to amplify black feminist healing and love all over your airwaves!!!!!

Yay!!!! Welcome to Dedicated: The Request Line of the Black Feminist Future! Here is how it works:

ask:

Ask for some advice about love, life, the practical or impractical pursuit of black feminism, foolishness at work, self-care, dilemmas or anything that might be on your mind. Typing a rant about a situation in need of healing in your life followed by the words "help a sista out" counts as reaching out for help and support.

You can reach out to me at

blackfeminismlives.tumblr.com/ask

or formspring.me/blackfeminism

Whether you leave your name or reach out anonymously you will get a song dedication towards your healing, affirmation and transformation of whatever situation inspired you to reach out with much much love from me!

listen:

You can listen to songs dedicated to you and everyone else at

blip.fm/blackfeministbass

or see the links at blackfeminismlives.tumblr.com

@alexispauline on twitter

I will also periodically be making podcasts with song dedications that fall into themes. You can subscribe to BrokenBeautiful Press for free on itunes to make sure that you get the newest podcasts when they come out. (Just search BrokenBeautiful Press in the itunes store)

collaborate:

You can also dedicate a song or affirmation to someone you want to affirm or to an ancestor you want to honor! Just go to the "ask" site above and type in your dedication and the name and artist of the song you want to dedicate and I'll amplify it on out.

We will also be having planetary release parties when the themed podcasts come out where people can share digitized mp3 mixed tapes with their own take on the theme of the podcast. Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com if you'd like to host release parties in your town!!

And if you are creating awesome black feminist music that affirms us all email me at brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to send me links to your music so I can put it out too!

Yay!!!! And as always if this inspires you and you are able....donate!

love always,

Sista Docta Lex about to bring Black Feminist Flava to ya Ear!!!! :)

Clarity: On Clarence Thomas and the Worth of Black Life

Yesterday my dad sent me an article from Slate Magazine about a Supreme Court decision written by Clarence Thomas that effectively argued that a black man, John Thompson wrongfully convicted because of evidence suppressed by 5 Louisiana prosecutors does not deserve the 14 million dollars that he was awarded as damages for his 14 years on death row for a crime he did not commit and 18 years served in prison unjustly even by the meager standards of prison justice we deal with in the contemporary US. (And yes, it matters to me that John Thompson, like my father and like Clarence Thomas is a black man in the United States.) I want to be as surprised as I am outraged that of all the conservative Supreme Court "Justices" to write this decision it would be Clarence Thomas, but that would be ridiculous.

I cannot forget that years ago my father told me that he considered it a "cruel joke" and an "insult" when he first heard the announcement that on the retirement of Thurgood Marshall, genius for justice and civil rights hero, a mediocre sellout Reagan appointee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission named Clarence Thomas was named by Bush One as the person to succeed Marshall and become the second ever African American supreme court justice. I was only 11 years old when the national government blatantly showed in hearings (which I was mostly not allowed to watch) that black men who would disrespect and lie about and betray black women would be rewarded by white men who could more quietly continue to do the same thing, when Thomas somehow claimed to be lynched by a fellow conservative and black female lawyer Anita Hill who spoke out against his practice of sexual harassment. And as psychologist and psychotherapist Dr. Alvin Wyman Walker says in The Conundrum of Clarence Thomas: An Attempt at a Psychodymanic Understanding "What can you say about a man who savages his sister?" (In reference to an instance when (In)Justice Thomas called his sister dependent and pathological for receiving a welfare check...which come to find out she was using during a short time to support their sick relatives who Thomas had abandoned-not that it should actually matter why she was receiving a welfare check anyway.) Indeed, what CAN you say about a man who savages his sister? You can say that he will certainly not feel accountable to any of us, brethren included, that he will turn against anyone, and especially anyone black if given the slightest opportunity. And now Thomas has taken his opportunity to justify a an attempted lynching (John Thompson narrowly escaped the electric chair 7 times during his years on death row.)

It is not a surprise that the Supreme Court would want to invalidate a decision that a black man who is wrongfully convicted in Louisiana deserves 14 million dollars for the cruelty that he has experienced. Imagine if ALL of the people of color wrongfully convicted with shady evidence received a million dollars for every year they have unjustly spent in prison....

To read the rest of the article visit The Feminist Wire

Lavender: "Love Between Us": Beyond Competition and Scarcity (Rainbow Reclamations #2)

By popular demand and with infinite love WE CONTINUE a seven month process called Rainbowed Reclamation, a colorful women of color juicy poetry and food-filled space of sacred discussions that reclaim our bodies, collectivize our spiritual energy and the brilliant choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.

These monthly discussion/rituals are love in practice towards creating a spiritually aligned, intimately interconnected, queer affirming and self loving community of women of color and genderqueer people of color ready to support each other in transforming the world.

Take a deep lavender infused breath and....
If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere near Durham...COME! If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere in the world email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to find out how to host your own event. If you are an ally spread the word!!!!

Sunday April, 17th

5pm-8pm

La Casita De Amor (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for directions)



*****Please wear LAVENDER and bring some food to share if you can!
Childcare will be provided and I hear there will be delicious lavender infused cookies by Kukia in the place!!!! *******

Here is the schedule for the rest of the series (FYI):

In Blue : "Once I Was Pregnant" :Circles of Rebirth: Sharing and holding stories of abortion, miscarriage and healing (Sunday May 22nd, 5pm---special Indigo Days session)
In Green: For Sechita: Sex Work and Solidarity (Sunday June 19th, 5pm preferably outdoors!)
In Yellow: Graduation Nite: A Sex Positive Queer Inclusive Intergenerational Conversation about SEX (full of juicy and complicated stories about "the first time") (Sunday July, 25th, 5pm)
In Red: "Keep Your Sorry": Break-Up Poetics: On letting go, rituals of release and positive relationship transitions (Sunday August 28th, 5pm)
In Orange:(Sunday Sept 18th, 5pm) Butterflies and Bad Girl Legacies: Sex, Survival, Revenge and Healing

4/10 Library Day #1: Eternal Summer Lending and Reference Library Grand Opening

At long last the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Lending and Reference Library is open, mostly cataloged and ready for circulation! Come and celebrate! Check out a book! Scan a digital copy of a rare article. Make an appointment to read in the reading room. Get a spring spirit cleaning reading prescription from sista-docta Lex!

For a preview of the available books look here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BlackFeministMind

Join us at the Inspiration Station (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for details)

1pm-6pm Sunday April 10th 2011

Yay!
There will be cake!

And if you live far away email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com about how you can donate a book OR click here to donate through paypal:

Or push the button to sign up to be a monthly sustainer (the big blue number is how much you'll be donating each month automatically)!

Mississippi "Odd" Damn: Intergenerational Black Feminism is Unbelievable

Black women on the move have always been queer to the intersecting systems of oppression that rely on us staying in our interchangeable and demeaning place.

“It just sounds really odd. You know?”

This is what a white male police officer said to me several times after he separated my partner and I for questioning and we both explained to him that we were driving through Mississippi as part of our cross country journey interviewing black LGBT feminist elders.

And outside the matrix of uniforms, skin, privilege and visible weapons, ghosts and the bloody history of the state (in the specific sense and the general sense) his disbelief would be at worst a strange look to brush off and at best a conversation to have about intergenerational black feminist love in action. But in this case the fact that the officer could not believe our truth and was much more likely to believe that we were troublesome black teenagers joyriding across state lines in a stolen RV, could have been the difference between us driving through Mississippi and being locked up, or worse. We are inside a matrix where to be black and feminist, to be black and driven by love, where to be black queer women on the move together is unbelievable from the perspective of the state. And we still live in a time when to be black, queer, brilliant, feminist, driven, to be incredible, unbelievable, stunning, to be exactly who we are, is a threat to the state and a risk to our lives.

Officer writing a "courtesy warning" to us for being "odd" in Mississippi.

The Story:

While driving on 1-20 in Mississippi a police officer from the interstate crime division pulled us over, citing a traffic concern: our following distance. Once we were pulled over, he asked us who owned the RV and what we were doing. We explained that we bought the RV, which is in my name, together with the support our community in order to travel the country interviewing our elders. The officer then asked my partner to leave the RV and called for back up. He questioned us separately. He asked us several times where we were going, how we got the money to be able to travel, how did we find these so-called elders, why would we want to visit them, was this for school, where did we live, how were we going to get back home, how did we get connected to these so-called black feminists, how did we know there were black feminists in the southern and western states we were planning to travel, and who are we to each other.

To see the whole article and join the conversation visit:

http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/02/16/mississippi-odd-damn-black-feminism-is-unbelievable/

or http://www.mobilehomecoming.org/?p=919

Women on Wednesdays Teach-in & Healing Cipher

This year, WoW organizers are pleased to offer a day-long teach-in to deepen our exploration of our motto "Engage. Create. Empower". Save your spot by RSVP with an email to ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com.



Agenda

10 am- Welcome and Honoring Toni Cade Bambara
1015 am-Yoga and Mindfulness w/ Dehejia Maat

1115 am- Workshop Selections (Descriptions below)

A-Define Your Personal Shine w/ BurnBright Lifeworks, Inc.
B-Finding Voice through Identity w/ Carmen Mojica
C-Lyrical Meditations: Using Freestyle to Free the Spirit with Toni Blackman

1215 pm- Lunch

1 pm-Safe Spaces w/ Ocean Ana Rising

3 pm-Break

315- Prepare Community Sharing from Workshops
330 pm-Community Sharing from Workshops
430 pm-Next Steps Continuing the Sisterhood
5 pm-Closing Activity



Workshop Descriptions

Yoga and Mindfulness with Dehejia Maat

All-Group Session 1 hr.

As a poet and writer I've come to a place where I can't write anymore, because the exterenal world impacts my internal. Yoga for Poets and Writers is a workshop that I've created to remove blockages thru meditation and yoga. Our focus: clearing the noise and drawing form the pool of inspiration.



Safe Spaces for Trauma to Triumph with Ocean Ana Rising

All-Group Session 2 hrs.

The Safe Spaces Workshop is designed to provide women survivors of violence with tools of creative expression to help them transform trauma into healing and liberation. Through this workshop, participants are encouraged to express their own sacred, magical selves, using cultural art techniques that can be revisited long after participation in the workshop. For this Safe Spaces residency, workshop participants will re-discover body awareness on their own terms through guided creative movement, body painting, & writing techniques. We will begin with free writing exercises using prompts that inspire participants to explore the initial and personal trauma. This writing will lead to creative movement techniques, focusing on breathing, flexibility, and rhythmic dance, utilizing an African dance fusion technique. The creative movement will gently guide participants through the memory of the initial wound/scar/trauma addressed through the writing exercise, toward a transformative process of re-memory through which the body experiences full expression and triumph. Participants do not need any formal dance training to participate in this workshop. Following the first portion of the creative movement aspect of the workshop, workshop participants will further celebrate their bodies, self expression, and beauty through a body painting session, high-lighting spaces on the body with visual symbols, designs and colors that reclaim and reinforce personal ideas of affirmation. After body painting, participants will return to creative writing, emphasizing transformation and triumph.

Define Your Personal Shine with BurnBright Lifeworks, Inc.
1 hour


Artist Track:
The overall objective of this workshop is is to equip artists with a deeper level understanding of how they may use branding as a personal & professional tool for their artistic endeavors (networking, seminars, collaborations, exhibit, etc.)

BREAKDOWN

This workshop will take place as a free-form dynamic discussion/presentation followed by a break out Q & A where participants may pose questions.

Glow Assessment (What's working for/against me?) With their lives moving at a lightening pace, many artists rarely get an opportunity to see themselves clearly. This section will focus on teaching participants to do a 360 degree analysis of their current situation.

Selecting Your Candle (Formulating their goals) Selecting your candle will help artists prioritize their goals and by doing so, develop their OWN standards for success.

Burning Bright (Branding Statement) The purpose of this section is for participants to walk away with their own personal Branding statement. Please not that this statement is quite different than an Artist's Statement. Participants will be coached to create a Branding Statement that will speak more to how they want to be SEEN as opposed to what their artistic vision is.

Voice and Individuality with Carmen Mojica
1 hr



Lyrical Meditations: Using Freestyle to Free the Spirit with Toni Blackman

1 hr.

Toni Blackman will lead a session using the spoken word to heighten creativity, inspire self-expression, and improve one's ability to go with the flow. Toni's participant centered wkshp provides a transformative experience that empowers those present to exist beyond their comfort zones. She facilitates the process of "getting open", guiding the energy so that both artist and non-artist benefit from the exercises. Be a part of the cipher.

Join us as we Celebrate Girls and Women of the African Diaspora all Month!!!!

Lending and Reference Library! Coming Soon!!!!

Greetings loved ones!!!!

We are in the final stages of opening something called the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Reference and Lending Library in my community (out of my living room) so that people can have access to great books that can inspire and empower them to think about race and gender and sexuality and politics and everything that they may want to think about more. I'm particularly collecting books that are not in the local libraries and I'll be having library days starting in March in addition to the events I have here at the Inspiration Station when folks can look at the reference books, scan themselves copies of articles and chapters and borrow the lending collection to take home!

I'm really excited about it. Since this summer when I started the process over 700 books have been donated!

You can see the books that I have entered so far (about half) here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BlackFeministMind

You can see the books that we are still "wishing for" on this amazon wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/9JXRNX84Z3R9/ref=cm_wl_act_vv?_encoding=UTF8&visitor-view=1&reveal=

Hooray! Maybe you'd like to donate some books that you already have? Email me at brokenbeautifulpress at gmail dot com. OR maybe you'd like to start your own lending and reference library in your community? OR if you live in Durham...maybe you'd like me to show you how you can catalog the books that you can share! Get in touch!

Much much love and booklust to everybody!!!

Lex

Bootcamp Podcast: The Sound of Mothering Ourselves

Loved ones!!!! For those of you who didn't get to participate in the MotherOurselves Bootcamp in Durham NC this January here is a podcast featuring the insights of the participants and some beautiful music!!! Playlist below.

[audio http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/bootcamp-podcast-1.mp3]

direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/bootcamp-podcast-1.mp3

Also know that for the next week...if you become an Eternal Summerian (monthly sustainer of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind) your first gifts will be a mixtape of the meditations of release we did during the bootcamp and the motherourselves manual so that you can bring this work into your life and your community!!!

We can make something out of anything.

Insight from Mariel Eaves and

The Revenge of Ricky Williams "Sweet Wolf Shirt"

We recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.

"Dear Mom" by Adele Nieves and

Climbing Poetree "I Wonder"

We establish authority over our own definitions.

Affirmations from Miya Binta

Doria Roberts "Dying Man's Wish"

We claim power over who we choose to be, knowing that such power is relative within the realities of our lives.

Estas Mujeres: Covenant by Fabiola Sandoval

Amel Larrieux "All I Got"

We provide an attentive concern and expectation of growth, which is the beginning of that acceptance we came to expect only from our mothers.

"When I Crave Mama" by Fabiola Sandoval

Me'shell Ndegeocello "Solomon"

We affirm our own worth by committing ourselves to our own survival in our selves and in the selves of other black women.

"I Am My Mother's Daughter" by Rashida James-Saadiya

Lauryn Hill "If They Only Knew"

We refuse to settle for anything less than a rigorous pursuit of the possible in ourselves, at the same time making a distinction between what is possible, and what the outside world drives us to do in order to prove that we are human.

"Mother Ourselves" by Julia R. Wallace (JDub)

Santigold "Unstoppable"

We recognize our successes and are tender with ourselves even when we fail.

"My Mother Ourselves Covenant" by Dara Montaque

Res "Bittersweet"

We learn to love what we have given birth to by giving definition to, to be both kind and demanding in the teeth of failure as well as in the face of success without misnaming either.

"Letter of Release to the Next Generation" by Miya Binta

Erykah Badu "My Life"

We lay to rest what is weak, timid and damaged without despisal and we protect and support what is useful for survival. We explore the difference together.

"Mother as Savior" by Miya Binta

Georgia Ann Muldrow "Runway"

We stand toe-to-toe inside rigorous loving and speak what has always seemed like the impossible to each other.

Truth Booth Conversation between Miya Binta and Manju Rajendran

Tata Vega, "Miss Celie's Blues"

As we speak the truth to each other it become unavoidable to ourselves.

ESG "Keep on Moving"

Infinite love,

Lex

MotherOurselves Materials! Gifts for Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Monthly Sustainers!!!!

Happy January beloved and far-flung supporters of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind!!!!!!

Since it is a beautiful new year...we have a beautiful new gift for our beloved Eternal Summerian monthly sustainers! All existing Eternal Summerians and all NEW monthly sustainers who sign up before the end of the month will receive their very own digital copies of crucial priceless curriculum materials from the MotherOurselves Bootcamp:

*The MotherOurselves Manual (including the mother ourselves manifesta, playlist, activity station descriptions and a 5 cycle meditation of release including direct quotes from across Lorde's body of work...especially Eye to Eye: Black Women Hatred and Anger.

*The MotherOurselves Meditation/Dance Party Mixtape: guide yourself or your group through the cycles of meditation and release with music, poetry and the mesmerizing sound of my voice :)

AND Eternal Summerians who sign up at levels of $20 or more will receive hardcopies of both the Manual and the Mixtape (well CD actually) and a one of a kind collage in the mail!!!

Hooray!!!!! Sign up today or on payday! Thank you for making another year of ETERNAL inspiration possible!!!!

Love,

Lex

Women on Wednesdays Art and Culture Project Now Accepting Performance and Workshop Proposals

Women on Wednesdays Art and Culture Project Now Accepting Performance and Workshop Proposals

Greetings,

I hope you all are finding warmth as it gets really cold outside. I co-curate Women on Wednesdays Arts and Culture Project based here in NYC. We are currently accepting performance and workshop proposals from girls and women of the African diaspora to present creative works and teach during the month of February. Here is the link: http://www.bettysdaughterarts.com/women-on-wednesday-teach-in.php If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com.

Ebony Noelle Golden
Peace.

Incoming Message from the Juneteenth Freedom Academy Unit on Love Poem

Greetings loved ones! For those of you who did not experience the delicious first session of the Juneteenth Freedom Academy on Love Poems here are some highlights from but one of our incredible poetic exercises!

See you next week? Event details here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=103868#!/event.php?eid=135017403218949

Voicemail messages after June Jordan....

[audio http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/messiness-of-love.mp3]

direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/messiness-of-love.mp3

After June Jordan's "Resolution #1,003" and "Why I Became a Pacifist and How I Became a Warrior Again"

(transcript of response to Why I Became a Pacifist and How I Became a Warrior Again)

I dare you to listen

to this entire message

My only apology is

to the self I will never again suppress.

I am singing my song and it sounds like

loving every smell every noise every accidental shine

of the self I came to be.

Also known as (sung) yeeeeeesssssssss!

My head clear and open

nobody else's voice in there

except maybe a lullaby from my grandmother.

And I dare you to keep listening

if you can stand to sit still long enough to hear

an anthem

that praises something other than your sorry ass.

Singing my song feels like hearing my baby's

heartbeat for the first time...and the more than that

is putting down my shield, laying down my sword

and facing love beautifully naked.

I need space to sing my song and you take up all the space.

I am ready for a room where I can breathe

and sing and smile and take off my clothes.

I live ready for live so

full so loud from my song

so explosive

love so deep and naked and vulnerable

armed

with ALL my nerve

and my sword

and my shield

(sung) singin' my war song

Because my song twists and turns in the

autumnal blaze of this battlefield

Because you want to hear the notes turned

inside out

To choose them

To take them home

To sharpen them against a blade

To surrender to them

I will be experiencing

sensing

seeing

smelling

unshrouded.

My soul sings with the joy of knowing

I have much more to offer the world than another sorry.

And I dare you to listen to this entire message.

We love you!!!

love,

lex

and p.s. donations are ALWAYS welcome in the form of money, toilet paper, or forks and plates!

Intention and Interdependence: Eternal Summer 2011

Loved ones!

This week's emphasis on vision and purpose (see the Combahee Survival activity here: http://combaheesurvival.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/1-vision-and-purpose/) has me very inspired. After some crucial and helpful conversations with participants in the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind process and some wisdom from elders who are part of the MobileHomecoming Project (especially Barbara Smith, Imani Rashid, Nadya Lawson and Cessie Alfonso) I am excited to share a vision for Eternal Summer in 2011 that will celebrate and amplify the way that BLACK FEMINISM LIVES in our community as an intention and as a catalyst for us to honor our interdependence.

Thanks Barbara!!!

As many of you already know, the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind happens locally and portably through in person gatherings in Durham, North Carolina, workshops around the countries and internet engagement around the world. Those levels of participation have been very symbiotic or helpful to each other. All the different people who have supported the project and interact with the educational materials in different ways have been spreading the good news (that BLACK FEMINISM LIVES!) fortifying their own revolutionary spirits, and creating inspiration in the different and overlapping communities that they love. The work that happens at the Inspiration Station in Durham gets uploaded as Inspiration to people elsewhere. Folks as far as Berlin make donations to receive publications and help pay the energy bill at the Inspiration Station. And this is only one energy cycle. More importantly everyone is participating in an energy field where we get more and more excited and inspired, more grassroots, low-overhead projects are popping off in Durham, queer Yoga, free healing clinics, community supported food justice sources and every day I am inspired by the initiatives that women of color are creating online (the Revolutionary Petunias Reading Group, the Crunk Feminist Collective, the Divine Survivors free online reiki clinic) and in person gatherings where folks draw on creative genius from within their communities and the communities they politically align with are sprouting up too as organizations like the Detroit Summer mural tour, the amazing Pachamama Skillshare and more sustainable beautiful spiritual, ritualized, intellectual and politicized initiatives to align our movements with the transformative messages of the universe. Eternal Summer is part of this energetic field and shift, all of this is interconnected and interdependent. We are benefiting from a shared ecology where inspiration, as a process, is circulating. I love it.

There have also been some lessons learned in terms of intentionality this past year that have clarified what it takes to continue abundantly participating in the flow. One major lesson was that while it is important to document and share the brilliance and inspiration that happens here in Durham with our wider community, and our local community who just didn't have time to stop by....it does not work to facilitate the same curriculum simultaneously in person and online. There are major benefits to letting the very jazz influenced, improvisatory and spiritually transformative work we do in person inform the development of shareable curriculum. Doing it at the same time seems scattered and rushes both processes. So in the name of INTENTIONALITY and to support the continued interdependence between the local and planetary impact of Eternal Summer it has been important to be very PRESENT to the local programming and the amazing energy that people bring as a major life source that everyone benefits from more when there is less pressure to produce a "product" for wider consumption immediately. In other words the clarity is that keeping the in person project somewhat blurry is good! Look at these beautiful blurry people.

Similarly the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind ecology acknowledges that while Black Feminism centers the role of black women and black queer folks in transforming the world, the transformation that we are participating and the critiques and practices created in that process are necessary for all who would live holistically in a loving world. This is why the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind has and will continue to create spaces specifically inspired by and focused on the brilliance of black women and black queer people that are open as a space of study and worship for everyone who is ready to be inspired and transformed. I am especially excited about the merging of two favorite activities...the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist mind monthly potlucks and the Black Girls Rock series. In the first six months of the new year every monthly potluck will be a listening party and discussion about the brilliance of artists from Abbey Lincoln to Lauryn Hill. Also as a contination of the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School there will be biweekly poetic activities specifically for survivors of child abuse and parents intending to break cycles of violence in their families. The work of Nadya Lawson with Holding Our Own an initiative that is intentionally 60 percent women of color and 60 percent queer reflects my vision for diverse participation in the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.

In addition to these ongoing programs that acknowledge the pricelessness of a Black Feminist approach for all people, there will be at least two programs that honor the intentionality and value of space that is more specifically and intentionally aligned. Based on the belief and the historical reality that spaces where black women and gender-defiant folks engage each other deeply and specifically open a space for radical healing and invite a powerful spirit of transformation into our communities. The historical example of the Black Feminist Retreats, which we learned more about last week from Barbara Smith and Cessie Alfonso and the contemporary brilliance of the Gumbo Yaya 12 week session on Sistering, Mothering and Daughtering here in Durham are more than proof of the value of intentional loving spaces for Black women as a gift for our whole communities. In that spirit I am excited to announce, far in advance Indigo Days a week of healing, building and visioning for black women (trans and cis) and genderqueer black healers to share their magic and affirm each other which will take place May 20-26th here in Durham. All of our diverse allies here in Durham are exuberantly invited to offer food, childcare and housing to make this event happen!

Another specific priority of Black feminism historically and need for our communities in the contemporary moment is space for diverse women and genderqueer people of color to build relationships with each other across shared oppression and important differences. This was the energy behind last year's Love Harder session and is part of the reason that this January's MotherOurselves Bootcamp (January 7-9), based on Audre Lorde's theory of learning to mother ourselves by addressing internalized oppression as it impacts our own spiritual expression and our relationships to other oppressed people, will be specifically for women (trans and cis) and genderqueer people of color. Again we will need and want the support of our diverse community in making sure we can have accessible space, food, childcare and housing so that all the women and genderqueer people of color who want to participate will be able to feel fully supported to attend.

And of course you are ALWAYS ALWAYS welcome to donate towards these experiences being free and freedom-producing for everyone!

Donate one time:

or become an Eternal Summerian by donating monthly!

I am so excited about the coming year and the ongoing ETERNAL energy of transformation that we get to participate in together in this little piece of the world we want to see.

Infinite love and inspiration,

Lex

p.s. so this is my clarified vision...what's yours? Participate in the activity here: http://combaheesurvival.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/1-vision-and-purpose/