QBG Monthly Google Hangout #2

Calling all QBGs! We love you and we want to see your faces! After a beautiful hangout during the Oscars last month we are doing it again! Participate in our second monthly casual virtual QBG gathering via Google+Hangout. This is a space to affirm each other and remind ourselves how awesome a force we are on the planet. There is no agenda...just open space to be together and be ourselves, and support each other, specifically for self-identified QBGs (aka Quirky Black Girls and Quirky Black Genderqueers).

Join us at 7pm-8:30 pm EDT on Sunday March 31st (also Easter Sunday) for our second session. Email alexispauline at gmail dot com or almah.alchemy at gmail dot com on Google+ to get linked in and we will send you an invite to the chat when we open it on Sunday evening!

Love,
Almah and Lex

Locally Grown: One on One Genius Conversations in Durham!

Another part of the Brilliance Remastered Durham Advantage!   It is SPRING!!!!  I am celebrating my favorite season in Durham, focusing my energy on the community I love!!!!!  Are you or someone you know someone who could benefit from a personalized Brilliance Remastered Conversation this Spring?
Maybe you are about to graduate from something or about to embark on your own social justice minded project.  Maybe you are ready to have a breakthrough around making your creative or intellectual work more community accountable.  Maybe you are hoping to launch an art project that will make our world a better place.  Maybe you need to quit your job and are looking for a way to transition out.  Maybe you want to make your side project the center of your life.  Maybe you just know a walk and conversation with Sista Docta Lex about your passionate work would increase its value for our whole community.  If that is you or someone you love you should sign up for a garden walk!  (Also if your accessibility or allergy needs call for it we can certainly sit in a garden or walk near a river or do something else.)
So here is how it works!
1.  Sign up for one of only 7 available one hour walks (Monday and Wednesday afternoons from April 1-22)
2.  Send an email to Lex at brillianceremastered@gmail.com about what you are up to right now and your hopes and dreams for our conversation.
3.  Recirculate the love!  Donate $50 to Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind (the same donation that folks not lucky enough to live in or near Durham pay for a phone consultation) OR donate $25 and a delicious healthy vegetarian meal that can feed Lex and her partner Julia!
That's it!!!!  Looking forward to your locally growing brilliance!!!
Love,
Lex

Black Feminist Film School Fieldtrip: A Place of Rage at UNC Greensboro

Date: Wednesday, March 27
Time: 7:30p
Place:UNC Greensboro Campus, Curry Building, Room 225 (Curry Auditorium)
Black Feminist Film School co-founder Alexis Pauline Gumbs is thrilled to lead a discussion after a screening of Pratibha Parmar's film  "A Place of Rage" at UNC-Greensboro.
"This exuberant celebration of African American women and their achievements features interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. Within the context of the civil rights, Black power and feminist movements, the trio reassess how women such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionized American society. A stirring chapter in African American history, highlighted by music from Prince, Janet Jackson, the Neville Brothers and the Staple Singers."
This event is brought to you by Women & Gender Studies Program of UNCG

We Are the Open We Need: The Need Ensemble Opens Up

The brilliant and brave Brilliance Remastered Need Ensemble has me wide open, reaching into my dreams and the dreams of my ancestors.   Last night after working with Audre Lorde's Coal and my brother Seneca's teachings about the relationships between dreams, wisdom and nightmares we wrote this poem together.   May you be as open to it as you need to be.


We Are the Open We Need

“Love is a word, another kind of open.”
-Audre Lorde “Coal”

ancestors screaming in my ear: open
headache in the center of my forehead open
fears open. hate open. terrors open. light open
pain i can use, open
i been here before, open

got my heart and ears ready to hear whatever you have to say open
remembering grandmothers with cleansing tears open
got my door open come in any time type open
mountains open with wisdom and protection open
rocks under pillows open

letting the light in open
magic portals open
sky open

hitting the ground so that i CAN open
breathing so my breathing can breathe open
alchemizing wasted-blood-into-lifeblood open

spirit emerging through this physical body open
legs open mouth open nostrils flaring open
arms stretched wide ready to receive open
water rum juice and tea bladders open
shamefully open. embrassingly open.
listening to my body, open
ecstatic womb open
birth open

hands open
hands reached out to hold other hands open
hands up to the computer open

heart open
heart mind body break-through open
breaking down emotional walls open

sleeping under the stars open
dancing in the rain open
rural night sky open
tired, good tired open
fed souls--open
chest crackingly open
belly laughing out loud open

eyes open with clarity open
knowing i'm noteworthy open
nobody can see me who i can't see open
dr. g arms open open
building community open
faith open


bars open
asylum open
borders open
church open
temples open
mosque open
altars open
mounds open
heaven open

consent open
lovers open
words open
need that tastes like love open
futures open
past open
now open
love open
faith open
ritual open
mothering ourselves open

in love with the souls making up this webinar open
seeing my reflection in you, open
saying your name in my prayers, open
seeing your smile open
universe open
we are the open we've been waiting for open
we are the open we need
open

We Know What We Need!: The Brilliance Remastered Need Ensemble Convenes!

Last night was the first session of the Brilliance Remastered  weeklong digital performance intensive honoring Audre Lorde's "Need: A Chorale for Black Women's Voices" as a resource for community accountable artist/intellectuals.  Inspired by Omi Osun/Joni L. Jones and the Jazz Aesthetic Manifesto we created this group poem as a performance, practice and primer on what we need in order to be present in our lives and in this intimate work together across time zones and geographical borders.  Here is one arrangement of our poem:





 We Know What We Need

i know
i need love
i know
i need to know that
i am loved

i know that
(i need hugs on hugs on hugs)

i know
we need water
i know
we need art
i know
we need our imaginations
i know
we need trust
i know
we need to breathe deeply
i know
we need LIFE
i know
we need to trust the miracles
yes! i know
we need miracles

i know
I’m needing
dancing

i know i
need to forgive
i know i
need to let go
i know i
need to accept that
I exist.

i know we
need to stop being shamed of our natural smells shapes ideas loves
i know we
need to remember what we hid
i know we
need to forgive ourselves
i know we
need to be courageous
i know we
need our ancestors breathing
i know we
need to continue learning
i know we
need to surrender to freedom
i know we
need to cry
i know we
need to work it all out
i know we
need to exhale
i know we
need to laugh... belly laughs...
i know we
need to mother ourselves
I know we
need to (continue to) connect
i know we
need to reach out for support when the terrors begin
i know we
need to hold hands
i know we
need to practice self love


i know
we need each other
we know
we need one another
i know
we need to heal
i know
we need to speak each others names
i know
we need to speak each others names in prayer
i know
we need sacred space
i know
we need ritual
i know
we need space to dream
i know
i need this space
this space!!!!

I know
i needed to come here tonight... this week.
i know
i need this life because i am here
i know
i need to overcome fear of the unknown
i know
it takes presence to perceive the miracles
i know
that i can always find this space when
i need it

yessss
!!!!!!!