Potluck Series

The Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Potluck Series is a never-ending series of delicious gatherings celebrating, lifting up, studying and utilizing the legacy of Black feminist thought to save our lives and transform our communities in Durham, NC (and in your community if you choose to read along!)

2013

Black and Brown visionaries of Durham and the surrounding area, Earthseed Collective (a group of black and brown visionaries transforming our relationship to land and resources) and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind invite you to a series of potlucks designed to work through the insights and challenges of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and it’s implications for our relationships to land, space, time and each other in this transformative moment in human history.  These potlucks feature interactive discussions with a curriculum designed by Earthseed nerd and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind founder Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Join us at 6pm on Friday July 26th

in Durham, NC

RSVP to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for directions!

We will be doing activities based on pages 1-60 of Parable of the Sower, but you do not have to read in order to participate in the activities and discussion.   Please bring food to share!

And here are the other dates for the next 6 months:

8/30, 9/27, 10/18, 11/22, 12/20

2012

Focus on Contemporary Black Feminist Poets

Sunday May 27th 5pm

Mendi Lewis Obadike

Former Durham resident, friend and inspiration to Lex and many others,  Mendi Obadike is a deep experimental tribute to reflection, manifestation and love.  A student of Lucille Clifton and a everyday example of how to bring poetry to life, her work makes space for conversations we need to have!   Join us for a discussion of a sampling of Mendi’s poems from Armor and Flesh and get ready to experience an open heart and a tingling of skin!  Check out Lex’s review of Mendi’s recent opera masquerade collaboration with her partner Keith Obadike in  4 Electric Ghosts  here to get a sense: http://thefeministwire.com/2012/02/get-there-four-electric-ghosts/

Sunday June 17th 5pm

Samiya Bashir

Brilliant poet, educator and smiling visitation of sunshine Samiya Bashir’s poetry rocks in your heart whether you read it with your eyes or your mouth.  There is something so Sunday-perfect and sanctuary ironic about these poems that you will not want to miss this session!  Read Lex’s overjoyed review of Bashir’s Gospel here: http://blackademics.org/2009/05/18/independent-black-gay-and-lesbian-publisher-redbone-press-presents-gospel-by-samiya-bashir/

Sunday July 22nd

Evie Shockley

Evie Shockley, also a former Durham resident and student of Lucille Clifton offers urgent experimental resources for Black feminist time travelers and our cluttered pockets.   As a scholar and artist her work allows us to speak with historical figures, re-meet ancestors we thought we knew and challenge the ways we internalize space.  Half-Red Sea is featured in the Mobile Homecoming web series The Real Reading Rainbow’s Kwanzaa poetry recommendations video (actually along with the books by the other poets featured in this series!   Check it out here:  https://vimeo.com/34218165

2011

August

facing “first”

Wednesday, August 10th  6pm @ the Inspiration Station

Where and when Anna Julia Cooper enters, possibility, ferocity and accountability arrive. As the first African-American woman to earn her PhD and a proud southern educator from right here in North Carolina, Anna Julia Cooper made her life into a question that many of are answering: YES!Join the participants in the Juneteenth Freedom Academy Summer Intensive for Educators as we celebrate yet another black woman who changed the meaning of education in this land.

Bring something yummy to share and be sure to remember who you bring with you where and when you enter!

love,
lex

2010

September

(Jewelle Gomez and her Nana, photo by Ann Chapman)

Reconnect with the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Potluck Series on September 2nd at 6pm at the Inspiration Station.    We will be discussing Jewelle Gomez’s “Because Silence is Costly” and discussing what it means for us to speak up intergenerationally and in community.

You can download the reading here: “Because Silence is Costly”

Bring a dish and a friend if you can and your brilliant eternal mind.

love,

lex

Saturday, January 30th, 1pm
Black Feminism Lives in Durham!
(featuring Harriet Alston, founding member of the Salsa Soul Sisters)

Watch this video to learn more about the Salsa Soul Sisters and come to the potluck ready to ask great questions and benefit from Harriet’s wisdom and experience!

February
Black Feminism Lives Worldwide!
(featuring the creative non-fiction of Mai’a Williams on Black feminist solidarity in the Middle East)

March
How Did We Learn to Love Like This?
(featuring the poetry and prose of asha bandele on love despite the Prison Industrial Complex)

April
Black Feminist Blogging
(tentatively featuring Yolanda Carrington of the Primary Contradiction)

May
“Turning the Beat Around”
(featuring Audre Lorde’s work on Black lesbian feminism and parenting)