bowfolk: seaponies: clingtomymouth: The Maroons were...

 

 

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bowfolk: seaponies: clingtomymouth: The Maroons were...

via maia medicine on 6/5/10

bowfolk:

seaponies:

clingtomymouth:

The Maroons were runaways, rebels unwilling to yield to the oppressive forces of slavery. The most famous Maroon military leader was a woman, that's right, I said a woman – Grandy Nanny. The British lived to regret the day they put Nanny on the slave boat.

Nanny was born in Africa (of the Ashanti tribe) and brought to Jamaica as a slave. The Ashanti's were one of the most powerful tribes of West Africa. Their women were held in the highest regard and participated in all facets of tribal life, even fighting and leading battles.

After arriving in Jamaica, Nanny discovered that here, women were no longer the highly respected vessels through which life begins, but instead reduced to laborers and breeders. Of course Nanny wasn't having any of this, so together with her five brothers, escaped to the mountains and began the first of many Maroon communities made up of escaped and freed slaves. This first settlement, nestled in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, was called Nanny Town.

Now that she was free, besides defending the emerging Maroon locations, she never wavered in her mission to entice other slaves to escape.

Nanny was a military genius and held power for over 50 years, taking on the roles of organizer, nurse, military and spiritual leader. Her soldiers were the first known to use camouflage when fighting and often bested the British because they were better at fighting in the rainy mountains.

In 1734 Nanny Town was bombed with cannons and destroyed, but it is said that Nanny and some of her followers escaped. Discouraged, but not beaten, they rebuilt. Nanny's people resettled on other parts of the island. United, the remaining Maroons and continued to ensure preservation of African culture and knowledge through the coming generations.

In 1994, Nanny's image was forever cemented on the Jamaican $500 bill.

A Tribue to Queen Nanny of the Maroons | Exquisitely Black

fuck yeah now that's what's up.

 

 

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Black Transpeople Are Making Black History, Too

 

 

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Black Transpeople Are Making Black History, Too

via maia medicine on 6/5/10

Black Transpeople Are Making Black History, Too:

bowfolk:

baruchandroll:

genderqueer:

transgayinfo:

"What I wanted to do is focus on the Black History that is being made by people like me, transpeople of African descent.

Some of it sadly has been lost to us because of our invisibility, but there has been a surprising amount of it recorded in unexpected sources like EBONY, JET and Sepia Magazines."

"We can't allow the contributions of Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major, Alexander John Goodrum and countless others to just fade away. That's a travesty for our transkids who are growing up without knowing that history.

It's also important for cis African-Americans to realize that we trans African Americans are integral parts of the community, not tragic murder victims. We have people who are not only proud to be Black, but are fighting to have our human rights recognized at the same time we fight to advance the entire African American community.

So yes, it's important for cis African descended people to know who our three African American IFGE Trinity winners are. It's important for them to know that Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major were part of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. It's important for people to know who Lorrainne Sade Baskerville is, or what Earline Budd has done to make the lives of transpeople in the Washington DC area a little brighter.

It's important to talk about the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Protest in Philly being not only one of the first instances of a protest organized around trans specific issues. but being a predominately African-American production as well." (read on)

 

 

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Bits: yes, i take it personal. and no, i don't report.

 

 

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Bits: yes, i take it personal. and no, i don't report.

via maia medicine on 6/5/10

Bits: yes, i take it personal. and no, i don't report.:

i've been raped more than once in my life.

i was also sexually abused as a child by more than one person.

i only "reported" one.

and i'm not going to get into all the details of that, but it was quite a disaster to report. following that reporting - which was one of the most traumatic events of…

—go and read the whole thing.

 

 

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On Trauma and Grad School: A Coda

 

 

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On Trauma and Grad School: A Coda

via my best friend gayle by summer of sam on 6/6/10

At the point during the meeting when my co-chair diagnosed me with the disease of perpetually questioning my own authority, I just nodded my head.  What I really wanted to do is say (very calmly, very sarcastically), "Well, I wonder why I do that.  It's not as if that's a common thing that happens in graduate school or in this department."  To a certain extent, I expect things like that from her, but when she said that I wanted to rip out my own voice box and throw it on the table (implosion, self-destruction--they've trained me so well).  My other co-chair agreed with what she said, but at least he said that my tendency to over-research wasn't uncommon.  I think what I wanted at that point was a little follow-up, some Holyfield.  Something like: Yes, you have problems accepting your own authority, but that's because this university requires that you question everything, especially yourself. 

I don't know.  I need the second part of that compound sentence.  I think I just need someone to acknowledge the nature of this place, and stop pretending that both the benign and malign negligence is just some regular, every day shit--that I'm making this whole thing up.  I don't want a self-esteem award, or a pat on the back.  I just want someone, who doesn't (perpetually) question their own authority to acknowledge the inherently screwed up nature of this process and what it does to people, and stop acting like I'm some sort of freakazoid whose mild procrastination was exacerbated merely by some quirky faults of my own.  I know that would be totally out of character, but at what point, if they're invested in seeing me finish the program, do they break character?    

But back to psycho-fucking myself.

I understand that what I've just said strongly suggests that I have a particular investment in their authority, but my stepdad was a cop.  If the primary authority figure in your life carried a gun, you'd invest, too.  All of this is connected, and if I can fix one problem, I think I can address the other(s).
 
I forgot to mention something about my tendency to over-research: I never remember anything.  I think because of the anxiety I have around it, I just can't remember anything I read.  As a result, I end up re-reading to the point that it becomes ritualistic.  (I have a tendency towards ritualistic behavior when I feel anxious...and when I eat.  Ask me about how I eat.)  So not only am I not writing, I'm not really being productive because I can't retain the information.  I'll never forget sitting down to my final exams and forgetting any and everything as soon as the first question was asked.  To this day, I know they passed me because our meetings were more successful than the actual exam. 

One more thing: This entire experience has made me especially ambivalent about the discipline.  I just don't think whatever skills I have are conducive to the vocation.  And even if I did decide that this was a career I wanted to pursue, I've spent so much time in isolation, I'm not sure I'd actually get a job.  I keep hearing the refrain that I should become a writer.  Trust, that's exactly what I want to do.  (I am taking any and all advice, help, and/or hookups that will make that happen.)  But I'm going to finish this Ph.D. first.  Perhaps I should've decided to leave school a few years ago, but grad school is sort of like the Mafia: once you're in so deep, you can't/don't really get out.  To add, I'm not sure I could've walked away from graduate school and not think of myself as a quitter.  That's not to say that I think of people who have left graduate school as people who couldn't cut it.  I have a totally different standard for myself than I do for others.  I'm hard on people--which is probably why I tend not to like them--but I'm even more unforgiving of myself.  Whatever my issues, I'm not going to let these people, this institution, this process defeat me.

It's hard to evaluate when you're still in the midst of the process, but if I had to characterize my graduate school experience, I'd say it has been the symbol of everything I've feared coalescing into one little nugget of an epoch.  Personally and professionally, I've been confronted with all (well, maybe most) of my shit--bills, bitches women,  and just general getting grown stuff.  I know this process is tough, but I also know that this entire experience was exacerbated with personal stuff many folks doing this thing didn't have to deal with.  As Saf's sister Robyn would say, 2009, for instance, wasn't no ho.  (I got a story to tell.)  I'm not making excuses, just reflecting.

I've digressed.

 

 

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aza brought me roses this evening

Quirky Black Girl to Quirky Black Girl

 

 

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aza brought me roses this evening

via guerrilla mama medicine » aza brought me roses this evening by mama on 6/5/10

 

 

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Poetry is Not a Luxury: The Remix (by School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar Participants)

www.summerofourlorde.wordpress.com

(Lex's wardrobe provided by Ammoliscious and sister-comrade Leah Burke)

I LOVE THE SCHOOL OF OUR LORDE WEBINARS!!!!!!

After reading and discussing Audre Lorde's "Poetry is Not a Luxury" the participants in the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar collaboratively created these two poems about what poetry IS and what it IS NOT!!!! Much love to Monchel, Chantal, Rosa and Leana for being badass cyber cypher warriors!!!!

not

poetry is not a mask

poetry is not a commercial

poetry is not homogeneous

poetry is not an excuse

poetry is not perverse

poetry is not linear

poetry is not just for white guys with nothing better to do

poetry is not canonized

not a classroom unit

poetry is not a bunch/of line breaks/in random/places

not a grade

poetry is not taught or learned--it's the language we were born with

not death without a birth

poetry is not inhibited

poetry is not brought to you by hallmark

a competition

poetry [will] not be televised

not a "10"

poetry is not about meter

poetry is not an accessory in a psuedo-revolutionary lifestyle

poetry is not oppressive

poetry is not convenient

poetry is not always easy

poetry is not boxable

not a bindi on a dreadlocked white girl's forehead at a powwow

poetry is not the destination -- it is the journey

poetry is not standard english

poetry is not patchouli

is

poetry is my son's smile

my fingers walking across his belly and squirming back

poetry is a heartbeat

yes

poetry is what i say to my reflection when i think no one is listening

poetry is a place to live

poetry is goosebumps!

poetry is breath

poetry is prayer

poetry is a breath of fresh air

poetry is italian ice on a 90-degree day

lol

poetry is your hand in mine

poetry is laughing out loud :P

hee!

poetry is an ecosystem

YES

poetry is painful but not in vain

poetry is a lifeline

poetry is family

poetry is an open heart

poetry is a safe space

poetry is knowing when you've met The One (or The Ones)

poetry is an exorcism

poetry is jabberwocky

poetry is knowing when you've met yourself

poetry is a new spelling of my name and everything else

poetry is the sound of sitting still

the sounds of getting up

poetry is raw

sdrawkcab si yrteop

poetry is forwards

poetry is a yes followed by an oh yes!

poetry is circular

poetry is everpresent

poetry is old

is silent when we're not listening, but still persistently there

poetry is about to happen

poetry is our only hope

poetry is wanted and feared

poetry is your skin knitting itself back together

poetry is omnipresent

poetry is an open door

this language is beautiful

poetry is love

poetry is stinky funky lust

poetry is knowing when to stop

and start again

poetry is what makes you say "aww" when you see a little kid

poetry is putting into words what had no words before

poetry is putting into words what never existed before

poetry is what my heart is saying to my hand

poetry is constantly naming what is so it doesn't get lost

poetry is mothering myself

poetry is how my mom calls my cell phone whenever i say (or type) the word “mother”

poetry is calling for my attention

to join the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com

Not Beyond Perdition

 

 

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Not Beyond Perdition

via The Crunk Feminist Collective » Not Beyond Perdition by susiemaye on 6/4/10

Last night's episode of The Rachel Maddow cemented her as a crunk ally. Although I generally eschew msm outlets, I do appreciate Maddow's rare brand of journalism. Walking along the increasingly endangered marshland in southern Louisiana, Maddow remarked, "Beyond petroleum, my ass!" Maddow's sentiment is more than a pithy jab at the behemoth oil company. It is a spot on, albeit brief, assessment of the travesty happening on the Gulf Shore.

In 2001, BP, also known as British Petroleum, started using the tagline "Beyond Petroleum" to emphasize their commitment to alternative energy sources and and the like. However, considering the company spends only approximately 4% of its budget on researching alternative fuels, BP is more adept at, or perhaps just more interested in, greenwashing its atrocious record rather than actually moving beyond the same tired paradigms of energy consumption. After all, they did change their logo from a shield to a cute helios pattern, that means they're down for the environment, right?

(AP)

I'll try to tone down the snark, but when I see pictures of birds caked in disgusting oil, I have to get snarky to keep from crying. We have one planet, yet we seem to be determined to damage, mistreat, pollute, and ultimately destroy it. I've lived in Florida and Alabama, two of the states deeply affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  I've lived through hurricanes, landslides, tornadoes, and tropical storms. And while I certainly don't want to downplay the devastation that natural disasters have inflicted, I will agree with Rachel Maddow in that this oil spill, which has already eclipsed the devastation that was (and is) the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, that this is a whole 'nother situation . The ecosystem and the industry may never be the same in these coastal regions because of the hubris and utter disregard of BP and its political cronies. (For the record, since 1990 BP has contributed more than $5 million to political campaigns in the US ; 72%  went to Republicans and 28% went to Democrats. Side eye).

The situation on the Gulf Coast is an issue that we cannot ignore. We all know that when things get bad communities of color, by and large,  get hit the hardest. Folks (and habitats) are still recovering from Katrina, Ike, and Rita in New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast region. There's no telling what all this recent disaster will do for these communities.

What is your take on the disaster? And what do you think needs to be done about it?

 

 

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On Trauma and Grad School

 

 

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On Trauma and Grad School

via my best friend gayle by summer of sam on 6/4/10

The first graduate school seminar paper I ever wrote may be the reason why I can't seem to write this dissertation with any sort of alacrity or diligence.  I got a decent grade, but one of the closing comments, "This paper is lucid and fun to read, but under researched," may have fucked me up a little.  (Obviously.  I can quote the thing verbatim.)  Since then, I've had problems turning in papers on time.  Deadlines have become almost meaningless, unless they're backed with serious "We're going to kick your black ass out of this department, and you'll have to get a real job" type threats.

I got in trouble--sort of, again--today during my annual meeting because I'm just not producing the quantity of work my committee wants me to.  I told my committee that this probably has to do with the fact that I just can't stop reading.  Seriously.  For fear of being under researched, I just keep reading.  It's so bad that my co-chair forbade me from reading another book.  All I'm allowed to do for the next five months is write.  It's true.  She wrote it down and signed it.  It's in my file.


I also know that reading is a way to prolong the beginning of the writing process.  I don't know why  I do this to myself, as writing may be the only thing I'm decent at.  Yet, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that sometimes it takes me hours, days to return a simple email.  I've been "working" on a three paragraph letter for a week.  (Holyfield.)  What was once just anxiety about academic writing occasionally spreads to other genres.  The paralysis is frustrating.  I'm not sure what to do about it, especially when I'm balling on a budget and have no real desire to return to therapy to discuss the fact that I'm not producing work.  (How is that helpful?)

Blogging has been, and on some days remains one of the few spaces where I can write with some sort of ease.  Still, there are plenty of times when even getting words on this kind of page is more difficult than it is for Maury Ballsteen to piss.Yet the difficulty I've been having lately compels me to think that maybe the occasion "spread" of writer's block is more frequent, and scarily, more permanent. 

I know my procrastination was exacerbated the moment I read those comments.  I interpreted them in a way that has caused me to perpetually question my own authority.  For instance, I have a tendency to look up words I know the meaning of just to make sure I'm using it correctly--and I'll use two different internet dictionaries just to be really sure.  I think I rationalized those words as someone telling me that I was terribly misinformed, or worse really wrong, and I just haven't been able to deliver myself. 

I don't know if this whole you-can't-read-another-book strategy will work, but I hope it does.  If not, I'm going to start looking for a self-esteem boot camp.  I need to be broken down mentally, so I can build myself back up.  I need to abandon those seminar paper comments, procrastination, perfectionism, and crippling self-doubt for good.  But I can't do that right now.  I have a dissertation to write.

 

 

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epiceli: thelastairbeezy: (via frommauiwowietomars,...

 

 

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epiceli: thelastairbeezy: (via frommauiwowietomars,...

via chaseology.com on 6/4/10

epiceli:

thelastairbeezy:

(via frommauiwowietomars, andbusiness)

 

 

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MobileHomeComing Update!: We Got the RV!!!!

www.mobilehomecoming.wordpress.com

We got our Revolutionary Vehicle!!!!!

Dear Family,
With your support Julia and Alexis have actually obtained the RV (Revolutionary Vehicle) that will transport us to you and all of our far flung loved ones to document the resilience and brilliance of Black queer folks across generations!

love,
lex and julia

Watch this video about how we got it!

RV Adoption! from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

It's never too late to help us out with gas money and living-on-the-road costs! Donate or become a monthly sustainer today!

Click below on the amount that feels generously doable to you to sign up for an automatic monthly donation (you do not have to sign up for a paypal account):

For a one time motivation donation click below!

1) Click DONATE.
2) Enter an Amount.
3) Click Continue.
(or login to your paypal account).
4) Follow instructions to finish your transaction. You're Done!