Sign up by April 30th! Eye to Eye: Radical Collaboration for Community Accountable Scholars
Greetings Bright Thunder!
Applications are now open for May’s Webinar Eye to Eye: Radical Collaboration for Community Accountable Scholars! Sign up by April 30th!
Eye to Eye will meet on four Tuesdays in May (8, 15, 22, 29)
Eye to Eye is an opportunity to get real about how individualism, internalized oppression and a capitalism-produced need to seem smart can get in the way of creating meaningful collaborations and useful intellectual partnerships with the communities that we love the most. It is also an opportunity to find partners to collaborate with and to create plans for becoming the unstoppable, interconnected, community accountable scholars we want to be!
Required reading: Audre Lorde’s Eye to Eye: Black Women Hatred and Anger
The Eye to Eye Webinar Includes:
- a workbook based on Audre Lorde’s Eye to Eye
- 4 live webinar discussion sessions facilitated by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and attended by aligned visionary underrepresented scholars
- inclusion in an ongoing networking google-group for webinar graduates
- theme songs to release internalized oppression as we reach out into collaboration!
Rate: $25-50 per participant per session ($100-200 for the whole course) or FREE for one-on-one coaching clients.
To apply for the Eye to Eye Webinar email brillianceremastered@gmail.com with your responses to the following questions:
Contact information: (phone, email)
Who are you and what are you up to?
Why do you want to take this webinar?
What times are you available on Tuesdays in May? (Include your time zone!)
Love,
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD
again among nature’s flowers: indigo night school survivor sanctuary
Friday, April 20th 6:30pm
(email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for address/directions)
Bring food to share and if you have them lemons, honey and fresh flowers!
Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s brilliant novel Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, I present to you INDIGO NIGHT SCHOOL (aka night-time is the right time). We will be convening on the Fridays closest to this season’s new moons into Spring for evening long rituals based on the magical remedies, recipies and rituals of the healer-girl sister in the novel, our beloved Indigo. This is a special sacred space for grown black warrior healers who identify as black women and/or black two-spirit, twinspirit, gatekeeper or genderqueer folks.
Please join me in participating in two more sessions of luxurious, fragrant, nourishing evening rituals where we can set our intentions, support each other and bask in the brilliance of a Black Feminist literary legacy!!!!
This month’s session, during sexual assault awareness month is a specific space of sanctuary for those of us who have survived and co-survived gendered violence structured around 12 year old Indigo’s healing ritual that she invents after someone in her community attempts to assault her.
If you can bring lemons, flowers, or honey, and any food to share, they will be much appreciated!
Journeystones: Angry Intellectuals Release
This Sunday was the second session of The Angry Intellectual: Channeling Rage for Transformation! We are training ourselves to use the energy and insight of our anger to create transformative relationships, not to reproduce domination. Here are some stones on our path.
With love,
Lex
Journeystones:
After Audre Lorde’s “Journeystones I-X”
a quarry of clarity from the Angry Intellectuals
(or a can of stones to kick)
i can drop my need to be right all the time
i can drop my fear of seeming like a failure
drop my need to be liked
drop my need to fix things for other people
i can drop my tendency to bear it alone….
i can drop the need to always do more…sometimes i have already done (MORE THAN) enough. capitalism kills.
i can drop my fear of being judged
i can stop faking the funk like any revolution has gone smoothly
i can drop the need to fit in completely. i’m different (in some ways) and it’s good.
and my shoes are cute 
i can drop my hard rock need to seem like i can never be hurt
i can drop the fear of never being hurt…and suspecting that the present is simply the past in a new body, time, and person
which also must mean i have to drop a refusal to deal with past hurts
i can drop my expectations of other black women to be the perfect me i wish i was
i can drop my fear of seeming needy
i can drop my fear of being my mother
and me of being my father…
and me of being reactionary
i can drop my need to be right/to focus on just my hurt so that i can see that other’s actions are really out of fear
i can allow compassion, instead of pushing it away.
i can drop my shoulders and release the pent up tension. that’s not even a good warrior pose!
i can drop the teacher/academic/professional pose which hinders the possibilities of radical education
i can drop those standards of grace that were not mine/ours to begin with
i can drop those perfectionist tendencies….
i can drop the idea of speaking to anger or emotion as taking up too much space.
i can drop my fear that i’m taking up too much space.
i can drop my fear that my community won’t hold me.
i can drop my fast conclusions which foreclose the possibilities of allies
i can drop my fear of my own healing and give others permission to heal
i can drop my need to hide love. I feel deeply and I need to say it often.
i can drop my need to seem rational when I KNOW my feelings hold truth
i can drop my distrust of my body. my body knows the truth!
I Know: Angry Intellectuals Testify!
This past Sunday was the first session of the second webinar in the Brilliance Remastered series The Angry Intellectual: Channeling Rage for Transformation and it was a testimony service indeed! As part of our process of acting on Audre Lorde’s wisdom that “anger is full of energy and insight.”
This group poem highlights some of the wisdom that our anger reminds us to act on!!!
I Know
A Group Poem by the Participants in the Angry Intellectuals Webinar
Channeling Rage for Transformation
I know that there is magic in my rage, and power in its love
I know that every emotion I express is valid
I know transformation is possible possible possible
I know I have the power to create create create from something, from anything from nothing
I know that my work is valuable and matterfact PRICELESS!
I know that the lives of black girls are priceless and sacred everyday. Including Sunday!
I know I’m happy I got to go to black feminist “church” this afternoon
I know I am grateful for this space.
I know that we need more of these spaces, for the many more like us out there
I know that state sanctioned, vigilante style, wrongful death–genoicide–is wrong
I know that love is always the answer
I know the power of our knowledge and love is stronger than capitalist ignorance that has those i love captivated.
I know that the revolution begins with the self
I know I have more to learn. I know I must be held accountable.
I know that being present is an uncomfortable lifestyle I must embrace
I know Superiority, Supremacy is not used to having to listen to the invisible.
And, I will not remain invisible.
I know that I am beautiful.
I know that I am more than enough
I know that I am bigger than any institution
I know that we can do this work….
and I know that I am not yet who I desire to be but all things in due time…
I know I am not limited by my physical challenges
I know I have what I need to do the work I am here to do. Actualize!
I know, as a white woman, other white people often don’t want me to respond to racism.
and yes I know that wrong is not my name
I know that my ancestors are right here right now.
I know I am not alone. I am surrounded in love.
I know that I am surrounded in and filled with transformative LOVE!
I know that letting go and not holding on is healing. Pack light
I know that we have strength in community. Not alone at all.
I know that my emotional clarity and expression will not only heal myself, but my community
I know when we come together to give others the space to express themselves
we give ourselves permission to be who we are
I know that my knowing is growing by the day.
I know that I know that I know that I know that I KNOW!
I know “they” betta act like they know
I know we betta act like we know!
(I know that I don’t want this to end just yet
Grooves for Geniuses to Get Through Graduate School: The Remastered Tools 101 Podcast
This audio goodness comes from the newest educational program of Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind which is Brilliance Remastered (alexispauline.com/brillianceremastered) especially for community accountable scholars and visionary under-represented graduate students based on the ever blooming brilliance of Audre Lorde!
This podcast is inspired by the brilliance of the participants in the first webinar Remastered Tools 101! It includes group poems and definitions that we came up with during the webinar sessions and some of my favorite music from NC and the rest of the world! (Nneena Freelon, Bradford Marsalis, Pierce Freelon, Apple Juice Kid, Fantasia, Frou Frou, Fela Kuti, Stevie Wonder, Suheir Hammad, Goapele, Phillis Hyman and Res!)
At first I had planned for this podcast to be only for the webinar participants and our pre-existing monthly sustainers, but it is just TOO good not to share more widely! So anyone who makes a donation to Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind or becomes a monthly sustainer in APRIL will get a link to the podcast to groove to yourself or to share with a visonary under-represented graduate student/emerging community accountable scholar who you LOVE!
Daily Truth: Mantras for Remastering the Day!
In the middle of the fourth and final session (it’s so hard to say goodbye) of the Remastered Tools 101 Webinar, we affirmed the fact that daily truth is a crucial tool for empowered community accountable intellectual work. In order to stay in each other’s lives every day beyond the webinar we shared the daily mantras that remind us WHAT IT REALLY IS! We will be putting these affirmations in our homes, pockets, bags, offices so that we can see them everyday and we invite you to do the same!
Remastered Tools 101: Daily Mantras:
“you here to remind people of free” -marvin k white
“I am who I am doing what I came to do.” –Audre Lorde
“Being open to receiving and giving blessings will keep you in touch with your passion, the passion you need to make it to the finish line. Get excited about your work and know that when you change the way you look at things, things you look at change. Go get em’ girl. I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your being.” –Melissa’s Auntie
“Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water, yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible nothing can surpass it.” –Tao Te Ching
“I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love.” Lorraine Hansberry
“Salt water can heal anything.” Lex’s Pop-pop
“Go on and be what we couldn’t.” Mississippi Damned
“We can learn to mother ourselves.” Audre Lorde
“How you treat yourself if how you treat God. You are the representation of God in your life.”
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” Lao Tzu
“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well.” Minnie Ransom from Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters
“Consistency is manifestation.“ Queen Hollins
“There is an invisible red threat that connects all human beings and though it may stretch or tangle it will never break.” Chinese Proverb
“Love is lifeforce.” June Jordan
“A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.” –Zora Neale Hurston
“There is a close connection between sexual repression and extreme aggression.”
“This is my granddaughter the poet.” Lex’s Grandma
“Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes, se hace puentes al andar./ Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks.” –Gloria Anzaldua
“Listen to each person as if she is your great teacher uttering her last words.”-Hafiz
“Safety is always necessarily an illusion.” –James Baldwin
“The work is the diva.” Zakia
“The best way to do it is to do it!” Toni Cade Bambara
“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” Rumi
“Movement is medicine.” Brown Femi Power
“Relationships not resumes.” –Thaura Distro
“Wrong is not my name. My name is my own my own my own my own.” –June Jordan
“We have the opportunity and the responsibility to become fifty times greater than we thought we could be.” Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs
“We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous. Actually, who are you not to be?” Marianne Williams
“Warrior get up!” Climbing Poetree
“So it is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive.” Audre Lorde
“Black girls are from the future.” Renina Jarmon
Active Being: Clarity from Remastered Tools 101 Webinar Participants
Active Beings Speak the Truth!
Last night was our second session of the Remastered Tools 101 Webinar. The brilliance, clarity, faith and bravery of the participants continues to rev my heart!! By the way…if you want to sign up for the next Webinar series get details here. We talked about the difference between being used and being on purpose. Check out these insights about what we believe is required to embody what Lorde calls “active being“:
“Interdependency…is the way to a freedom which allows the I to be, not in order to be used, but in order to be creative. This is a difference between the passive be and the active being.”
Audre Lorde “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”
Actively being embodies a way of life and living, continuous conscious decision making. And that sometimes means you will fall short but recognize the “uh-oh” moments.
Active being is being okay with making mistakes, having compassion for yourself and others, not being perfectionist, sharing works-in-progress.
Active being means letting go.
Active being is hard when most of my days I’m on autopilot.
I cannot practice humility on auto pilot!
Active being is starting with creativity. Asking what should we do? instead of
looking around at traditional models and saying how do we most quickly reproduce that?
As a disabled person and a survivor, part of my active being is doing enough healing & rest & self care & self-awareness that when I step up into being and doing I can actually sustain it accountably.
Active being is growing roots such that your vision starts unfolding in all ten directions, but the road has become one.
Radical self care is the foundation of active being for me. When I take good care of me, I do good work. Such simple things like drinking enough water, cooking good meals, praying, putting on lotion.
Active being is listening to myself and listening to my community and physically putting my body where it needs to be
Active being is trusting my intuition.
Active being requires creating and seeking spaces which affirm us completely.
Survival is Not…: A Group Poem by the Remastered Tools 101 Webinar Crew!
Last night was the first ever Remastered Tools 101 Webinar session for visionary under-represented graduate students and emerging community accountable scholars! It was an amazing cyber love-fest in the name of the Lorde across at least 6 time zones! How awesome to engage the context and challenge of Audre Lorde’s “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” with such brilliant love filled computer screen beams! It was a faith-building and clarifying experience for me and I am filled with gratitude for the bravery and clarity of the participants!
(when academics kill)
“Survival is not an academic skill.” -Audre Lorde “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”
“Capitalism of the mind makes us all stupid.” Anna Torres’s advisor
Based on a group poem activity by the 2012 Remastered Tools 101 crew!
Survival is not the death of me.
Survival is not the death of you.
And I wish people would stop making it so complicated.
Love is not an academic skill.
Listening is not an academic skill.
Liberation is not an academic skill.
Compassion is not an academic skill.
Care is not an academic skill.
Comradeship is not an academic skill.
Courage is not an academic skill.
Mindfulness is not an academic skill.
Humility is not an academic skill.
Self-correction is not an academic skill.
Feminism is not an academic skill.
Speaking truth to power is not an academic skill.
Visibility is not an academic skill.
Affirming the beauty of others is not an academic skill.
Honoring one another and our visions are not academic skills.
Ethics are not academic skills.
Trust is not an academic skill.
Trusting intuitive power and hope are not academic skills.
Nurturing spirit is not an academic skill.
Being human is not an academic skill.
Being yourself is not an academic skill.
Creating family is not an academic skill.
What our grandmothers taught us
and what we learn through the body are not academic skills.
Dancing is not an academic skill.
Making love is not an academic skill.
Snap.
Survival is not an optional skill.
Survival is not a game for pay.
Survival is not the illusion of safety.
Survival is not thinking we need to fit into boxes.
Survival is not becoming who you need me to be.
Survival is not holding our breath.
Survival is not made possible by overriding our bodies.
Survival is not possible without rest.
Survival is not scary when we know what we are living for.
Community is everything.
Indigo Night School Session #2: Healing Wounds That Can/Not Be Seen
Friday March 16, 2012
6pm-10pm
At the NEW Inspiration Station
(email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for directions)
“Rock in the manner of a quiet sea. Hum softly from your heart. Repeat the victim’s name with love.” -from Indigo’s “Emergency Care of Wounds that Cannot be Seen” in Ntozake Shange’s Sassafrass Cypress and Indigo.
Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s brilliant novel Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, I present to you INDIGO NIGHT SCHOOL (aka night-time is the right time). We will be convening on the Fridays closest to this season’s new moons into Spring for evening long rituals based on the magical remedies, recipies and rituals of the healer-girl sister in the novel, our beloved Indigo. This is a special sacred space for grown black warrior healers who identify as black women and/or black two-spirit, twinspirit, gatekeeper or genderqueer folks.
Please join me in participating in three sessions of luxurious, fragrant, nourishing evening rituals where we can set our intentions, support each other and bask in the brilliance of a Black Feminist literary legacy!!!!
Save the Dates!
Healing (Wounds that can/not be seen) Friday, March 16th, 6pm-10pm
Dreams Coming True Friday, April 20th, 6pm-10pm
Lailia Nur: People’s War Durham Video Premiere!
Congratulations to Laila Nur! Making big moves. Look out for her new music video in protest of police brutality coming to a screen near you. We were honored to host the Durham premiere here at the new Inspiration Station! We love you Laila!!!!
