Real Reading Rainbow: Queer Black Intergenerational Booklust KWANZAA Edition
‘Indigo Was the Folks’: AfterSchool Brilliance
“There wasn’t enough for Indigo in the world she’d been born to, so she made up what she needed. What she thought the black people needed.
Access to the moon.
The power to heal.
Daily visits with the spirits.”
-Ntozake Shange on little sister Indigo in her first novel Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
We are in my car with the top down dodging the falling leaves when Assata drops knowledge on the subject of grades, a new clarity gained during this first term of 6th grade: “Grades are bullying the alphabet.” They decide they are double jointed and find out that their hands can bend in ways they never knew. They read outloud parts of the books they are reading. They punch each other very lightly at the sight of a volkswagen bug. And this is just the car ride.
The Indigo Afterschool Program was an idea that 11 year old Alex Lockhart shared with her mother, using the words: “I want to go to an afterschool program at Alexis’s house.” Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s character “Indigo” from her first novel Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, the Indigo Afterschool TeaParty is a place to share dreams, make art, blow bubbles and investigate Indigo’s practices of healing, self-love, dream interpretation, doll-making, compassion and full self-expression! Mini-geniuses from 3 Durham middle schools participate!
We check in over tea and snacks letting a deep breath out at the end of our check-ins by blowing a real or imaginary bubble. We make dolls that listen, healing remedies for emotional emergencies, books for our dreams, collages for our visions, love notes for each other in the name of Indigo who used all these things to create the world she needed when she was right in the arena of the menstrual transformation.
It is an honor to participate in the building of community and sisterhood among these brilliant young folks, and as the Crunk Feminist Collective reminded us with their development of a women’s studies 101 workshop for high school students (http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/feminism-101-or-why-womens-studies-cant-wait-a-workshop-for-girls/)
the intentional support and nourishment of the love, transformation and brilliance that is already living and growing and possible in young people can never start too early.
Indigo Afterschool uses the model of Indigo…just one of many audacious, inventive, complex, community accountable and wise young Black characters created by Black feminist writers to give young folks a chance to love each other and explore their own magical skills, a space to critique the norms they are noticing at school, and a validation of the practices of breathing, creating and listening.
As people around the country reclaim space in their communities to activate their visions I am proud that the space that these 11 year olds (who have just proposed an expansion of the program to bi-weekly sessions) have decided to takeover my living room with their dreams.
(Here is what Alex left on the chalkboard)
Indigo Style Remedies:
Yesterday we read some of Indigo’s remedies that she creates after difficult experience and share with her community of dolls so that her growth can also benefit them. Oh Indigo!!!
Rock in the manner of a quiet sea. Hum softly from your heart. Repeat the victim’s name with love. Offer a brew of red sunflower to cleanse the victims blood and spirit. Fasting & silence for a time refurbish the victim’s awareness of her capacity to nourish & heal herself.
The Indigo After School crew also wrote their own remedies yesterday (they also wrote a healing recipe for popcorn, getting past writers block and “boredness”).
Here is some of their advice…that I recommend keeping on hand or enacting right now for your own healing:
Emergency Care for the “the funk”
by Bailey
(i.e. like on Glee, when they were in a funk because they were afraid their singing group wasn’t good enough)
Surround oneself with loved ones, then go on top of a tall object and scream to hearts content all of ones deepest feelings. If this does not work, go in private room and listen to songs that mention only of happy things, then write down all of ones problems and think of a way to turn them around.
Emergency for Sadness
by Assata
1. go to the bathroom and turn on hot water. let it steam.
2. get your favorite incense and burn it
3. get a robe and put it on
4. put the incense in the bathroom
5. put a stool in the bathroom
6. write all the things you are sad about on a piece of paper
7. write on the steamed mirror all the things that are peaceful
8. sit in the bathroom and be peaceful with the steaming and the incense
Forged by Fire (for hard experiences that change you forever):
by Alex
Bathe in a tub of warm water without bubbles. Slowly lie down and let all the bad energy out. When you get out, don’t dry off, instead go to a silent room and let the peaceful air dry you off. Next rub your skin with soothing lavender oil. Now go outside and let the sun wrap its loving rays around you.
Amazing! Priceless and here is how you can support this space!
1. Of course donating to the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind one time
or becoming a monthly sustainer helps infinitely to sustain this free program for superhero youth.
2. This community of readers is the best thing ever. Want to send as a winter break gift 1 or 3 copies of your favorite young adult book from when you were around 11? The Indigo afterschoolers are self-identified “cool nerds” and will need a lot of reading material when school lets out next month to keep their brains engaged! Email alexispauline@gmail.com for the address.
3. Or contribute to the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Library that surrounds and uplifts the participants and their parents and grandparents and younger siblings and friends by donating a book from the Eternal Summer amazon wishlist!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/9JXRNX84Z3R9
Keeping it quirky, eternal and off the hook!
Love,
lex
Video: Empowering Force of Feminist Teaching | Watch Black Issues Forum Online | UNC-TV Video
Often praised for their strength, many black women nonetheless suffer lives of victimization and oppression. Author and black feminist activist Dr. Alexis P. Gumbs uses black feminist thought in her intergenerational self-empowerment workshops. Hear her strategy. Watch online: Empowering Force of Feminist Teaching from Black Issues Forum. On demand, streaming video from UNC-TV
Love is Lifeforce: June Jordan and the Horizon of Education 11/1/11 at 6:30 pm
Greetings loved ones! I’d love to see you at the second installment of the Survival Series: Black Feminism for the Future at Stanford L. Warren Library!
In this the second part in the “Survival Series: Black Feminism for the Future” this lecture draws on author June Jordan’s essay “The Creative Spirit in Children’s Literature” which explains that “love is lifeforce” and describes the intergenerational work of nurturing the spirits of children as the most sacred work that adults can do. In a time when the education budgets for Durham schools are under attack and the Wake County schools are actively resegregating, Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs will present a multi-faceted vision for educational justice in our times.
Sowing Parables: Octavia Butler, Resource Justice and a Shift in Values
Tuesday October 18th
6:30-8:30pm
Stanford L. Warren Library
1201 Fayetteville Street
Durham, North Carolina 27707
The first in the “The Survival Series” Black Feminism for the Future” this lecture draws on the relevance of black feminist Science Fiction writer Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents” to offer an urgent and empowering perspective on our present-day resource crises. Black Feminist scholar Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs will provide context and a framework for a visionary approach to everyday life in the context of shifting planet followed by a Q & A and talk back with organizers and experts from the food justice movement.
8.28.11 Butterflies and Bad Girl Legacies: Rainbow Reclamations Durham
5pm-8pm
Sunday August 28th
Inspiration Station, Durham NC (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for directions)
Dedicated to your sacred sassy self! This session for women of color and and feminists of color who do not conform to the gender binary to talk about sex, survival, revenge and healing on our own terms. We deserve a space free from the policing and criminalizing norms about our sexuality as people of color and as gender transforming revolutions.
This will be a space where through the journey of Ntozake Shange’s Lady in Orange,… we can explore how we feel about the intergenerational criminalizing of our bodies. About the shade thrown inside and outside of our families about feminized folks who refused to play the game by patriarchy’s rules, the reclamation of the word “slut,” the shaming work of books like Steve Harvey’s “Act Like a Lady Think Like a Man” and the over-riding truth that wrong is not our name. We are so bad its good.
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.
Please wear orange and bring food if you can!
Children are welcome will be provided…please let us know in advance if you can if you are bringing a young revolutionary who may not be quite young or old enough to wander through our conversation about sex and coming(!) of age.
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.
Childcare will be provided!
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 and send folks in North Carolina to us!!! If you are an ally spread the word and please send this to people who need this space!!!!
Here and Now: Anna Julia Cooper Birthday Potluck 8/10 @ 6pm in Durham!
facing "first"
Bring something yummy to share and be sure to remember who you bring with you where and when you enter!
love,
lex
Never Again: A Break-up Poem by the “Keep Your Sorry” Rainbow Reclaimers
Never again will i
pretend to want something that i don’t want
pretend to be someone i am not
compromise my well being
hide my pain
settle
apologize for what i need
never again
fighting so much
more processing than lovemaking
being unsupported
lying
betraying
moving too fast
giving up my own bliss, my own path
not being “chosen”
never again
sticking around for the puzzle that doesn’t want to be solved
hoping for my partner to stay frozen or locked in place
never again
hungry-starving for affirmation and acceptance
shame about my own dancing
sleeping with my friends or people i work with
never again
will i betray someone or myself
be duplicitous
accept lies and half-truths
be with someone who makes me feel uninteresting
be with someone just out of a very long relationship
be with someone with no self care hobbies
be with someone selfish in sex
never again will i
equate sex with intimacy
say i’m sorry just to make someone feel better
never again will alcohol abuse or emotional abuse be part of my relationships
i will always trust myself and never lie to myself ever
never again will I dull my light to make you feel more comfortable in the dark
never again will i make myself less amazing and desirable so that you can be worthy of me
never again will i let my desire to be right outweigh your desire to be loved for who you are.
-July 24, 2011 Inspiration Station, Durham, NC
Lex in Atlanta Tomorrow: The Revolution Starts at Home!
Wednesday, July 13, 7:30-9pm
Charis Books and More
1189 Euclid Ave. NE Atlanta, GA 30307 (404)524-03
Join us in welcoming back a longtime member of our Charis family, Alexis Gumbs as she reads from her essay in The Revolution Starts at Home and shares some of her strategies and wisdom about creating transformative justice in all of our communities.
Based on the popular zine that had reviewers and fans alike demanding more, The Revolution Starts at Home
finally breaks the dangerous silence surrounding the “open secret” of
intimate violence—by and toward caretakers, in romantic partnerships,
and in friendships—within social justice movements. This watershed
collection compiles stories and strategies from survivors and their
allies, documenting a decade of community accountability work and
delving into the nitty-gritty of creating safety from abuse without
relying on the prison industrial complex.
Fearless, tough-minded, and ultimately loving, The Revolution Starts at Home offers potentially life-saving alternatives for creating survivor safety while building a movement where no one is left behind.
http://www.charisbooksandmore.com/book/9780896087941
This event is part of our Organizational and Community Building Project and is co-sponsored by Southerners on New Ground (S.O.N.G.)
Rainbow Reclamations Red: “Keep Your Sorry”-Break Up Poetics
Sunday July 24th 2011
5pm-8pm
Inspiration Station, Durham NC (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for directions)
Dedicated to the broken ground of your healing heart! This session for women of color and and feminists of color who do not conform to the gender binary is about lifting up break-up poetics as necessary and transformative clarity that can help us to create the lives, loves, and spaces we deserve! If you have ever been through a break-up, need to transition a relationship or are in the midst of a relationship transition right n…ow come to this event!
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.
This month’s activity is specifically about visible solidarity as and with sex workers of color. We will be having a ritual and making a banner of belief to place at the site of the Duke Lacrosse House.
*****Please wear RED and bring some food to share if you can. *******
Childcare will be provided!
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 and send folks in North Carolina to us!!! If you are an ally spread the word and please send this to people who need this space!!!!
