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always makes me wonder how do I define the shape of my power upon this
earth.”
Global warming is not cute. The recent oil spill is part of a tendency
for our species to self-destruct by destroying our planet (see QBG
perspectives on responding to the oil spill here: http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.
So what does survival look like? I like to day that survival was one
of Audre Lorde's favorite words. It's certainly the topic that I turn
to her for more often than any other. (In fact I may have used this
quote in a previous QBG update...not sure). What do our community
building practices have to do with the very material, very scary factors
that threaten our collective survival. As Lusiah Teish pointed out at
the Africa in the Americas event at Spelman College, we don't have the
power to destroy the earth...we only have the power to make it
uninhabitable for ourselves.
So in the age of global warming Eternal Summer is an invocation and an
invitation. School is out. Transformed into a new name for how we
learn to live as community. We are ringing the bell on the status quo.
Getting back around the kitchen table and out into the sun because heat
is what we're dealing with. QBG Mai'a calls this standing on the
frontlines, choosing to disobey, mothering ourselves into transformation
in revolutionary ways. What is the shape of your power on the earth?
Talk about it here...what is your eternal summer? How are you bringing
that bravery, that in-between transformative energy that we usually
(used to) save for summertime into your everyday? Talk about it here: http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.
And speaking of school being OUT...yours truly just got the
calligraphized receipt for her PhD...and the crowd went wild. In honor
of all the brave Black women who taught me how to what the *&(* I
came to do check out the Still Brave Podcast (recorded at the Still
Brave Symposium at University of Maryland and featuring Barbara Smith,
Cheryl Clarke, Farah Griffin, Akasha Hull, Patricia Hill Collins and
your girl QBG Renina and many many more here: http://brokenbeautiful.
geniuses talk about how they practice bravery aka reframe their survival
in a world that hostile to Black woman and girls who dare to
acknowledge how brilliant we all are!
This week/end was a huge celebration from and with all of the loved ones
and badasses that share this accomplishment. And the big neighborhood
cookout in my backyard was epic. Little kids running around wearing the
PhD hat, elders drumming in praise. From now on little Black girls are
gonna be walking around in they mamas robes talking about "I'm dressing
up for my PhD Day." The words wedding and marriage just got harder to
pronounce. I'll post pictures soon...but trust celebrating our
accomplishments and sharing them as moments in the life-cycles of our
communities makes a world possible where getting married and dying are
not the only things that can bring a family together. I'm looking
forward to celebrating graduations, album releases, art exhibits, baby
namings, tattoo unveilings etc. etc. with all of you henceforth and
forever. Oh and the best possible graduation gift ever? Become a
monthly sustainer of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind: http://blackfeministmind.
or the MobileHomeComing: http://mobilehomecoming.
5 bucks a month goes a long way towards helping a sista survive :)
TOMORROW....ATL QBGs please gather at QBG Moya's Quirky Commune to
listen to Quintessential QBG Janelle Monae's album The ArchAndroid. That
artists sure knows something about about the future! Details about the
listening party here:
http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.
Speaking of survival....Durham is blooming into a celebration and
engagement with Black Feminist Heaven next week in honor of the Combahee
River Collective and Sakia Gunn. Check out www.combaheesurvival.
and email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com if you want to have your own
revival week and say hi to us on skype :)
You rock. So much. And QBG is sho nuff gonna survive. Let's just look
under the couch for that last 35 bucks towards our chip in goal here: http://www.chipin.com/
Survival is a promise. I'm making that promise to you. Pinky swear.
Cross my heart. Hope to live.
love always,
QBG Lex
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